Publish or Perish? Academic Publishing Pressure, Sustainability, and Institutional Research: A PRISMA-Based Systematic Review

Abstract

Academic publishing pressure has evolved into a defining feature of modern higher education, driven by a global shift toward metric-based evaluation regimes and performance-oriented governance. While the “publish or perish” culture is a frequent topic of debate, much of the existing research remains fragmented. Studies often treat academic publishing pressure as personal issues, separating from mechanisms of institution management, which makes it difficult to see how they truly interconnected. Thus, this review aims to address this gap by examining academic publishing pressure together with its impact on sustainability and Institutional Research (IR) in higher education.

Using a PRISMA-based review approach, this paper synthesizes 15 peer-reviewed and policy-oriented publications. Guided by three research questions, it analyzes how academic publishing pressure is described and measured, how it affects sustainability at individual, institutional, and knowledge-system levels, and how IR mediates these dynamics. The findings indicate that academic publishing pressure is the structural outcome of metric-driven evaluation and governance systems, and has impact on individual academics, institutional priorities, and knowledge production. Among these, IR functions as a key mediator that can either reinforce the status quo or help transform research evaluation toward more sustainable practices.