Highlights of a research examining the writing habits of 600 academic authors. Download the full results at www.scholar.prolifiko.com

2. Over 2018, we conducted
research into the productivity
of academic authors.
We wanted to learn more about
what they wrote, how they
wrote, what pressures &
barriers they faced and how
satisfied they were about their
writing and publishing.

3. The research was led by Prolifiko, a services
and training consultancy specialising in
improving the productivity of academic &
professional writers.
The survey was co-designed with & analysed
by:
- Prof. Christine Tulley, Findlay University
- Lettie Conrad, Scholarly Kitchen, DeepDyve
- Deirdre Watchorn, De Gruyter

4. We found three turning points in
an academic writing career.
At each point, authors face
similar challenges & barriers and
have similar priorities.
These stages indicate that an
academic career progresses in
anything but a linear fashion. For
example….

6. We asked academics what
they mostly write & publish.
And the answers won’t be
a great surprise.
But what they write &
publish and crucially, why
they do it, changes over a
career.

7. Understandably, theses and
dissertations dominate the
focus of early career
scholars.
They’re not yet writing
journal articles, conference
papers. But they will be
soon…

8. At mid-career, work-related
writing & publishing become
the priority. Academics spend
most of their time writing
articles, conference papers
and grant reports.
But in late career, things
change again…

9. Book writing becomes a
priority – a type linked to high
levels of satisfaction. As does
journalism & blogging –
perhaps linked to ‘thought
leadership’.
Article, conference report &
grant report writing all
decrease. Three types of
writing linked to either
neutral levels of satisfaction
or dissatisfaction.

11. We asked academics:
Do you feel under
pressure to write &
publish more than you
currently do?

12. Then we asked:
Where does this pressure come from?

13. Which is interesting, but only becomes meaningful when we
investigate how these pressures ebb and flow across a career.
For example…

14. +
Whilst internal
pressure increases
then decreases
over a career.
External pressure
decreases then
increases.
Mid-career scholars
experience high levels of
internal pressure – a form
linked to dissatisfaction.
Whilst late-career scholars
experience high levels of
external pressure – this
causes them little stress.
They report the highest
levels of happiness of their
careers.

16. We asked academics what
their main barriers to
writing & publishing
productivity are.

17. But again, these findings become richer when we examine
how barriers change and are experienced differently
across a career.

18. “Some days I feel
physically sick at writing
or reading anything that
has to do with my PhD.”
Early on, barriers are
psychological and technical
in nature.
They suffer with low
confidence, feelings of self-
doubt & procrastination.

19. “The demands on my
attention just swamp me.
I get a huge volume of
email. Then there’s all
the student enquiries…”
By mid-career, work
pressures are kicking in.
They struggle with time
management, interruptions
& work responsibilities.

20. “Oddly, I'm not sure why I
write. I am tenured and
fully promoted so it's not
for that. I enjoy it, the
craft of it. It's part of my
job. I think the work is
important.”
By late-career, many of
these pressures have fallen
away. In fact, only two
remain.

22. We asked academics how they made time for writing, whether
they had a particular method and if so, what that was.

23. We asked:
Do you write every day?
Do you block out chunks of time across your week or month?
Do you tend to write on holiday or on sabbatical?
Or do you not consider you have any particular method?
This was the result…

25. But digging into the data, we find that academics use
different methods at different stages of their career.
We also find that choice is impacted by a range of external
factors & pressures.

26. Whilst ECRS use time-
blocking & daily
writing methods in
equal proportion.
As they approach mid-
career, time-blocking
becomes the favourite.
We also found links
between scheduling
and other factors…

27. Satisfied? Productive?
Daily writers:
Time-blockers:
Sabbatical writers:

29. On the surface, our overall results
weren’t that surprising.

30. Early career
85% of early career researchers
(ECRs) say they feel under
pressure to write & publish more
but over the course of a career…
Late career
High
agreement
Low
agreement
…this drops to
66%.
… this rises to
40%.
Just 29% of ECRs say they
feel satisfied with their
writing practice but over
the course of a career…

31. So, pretty simple. The more experience you have the less
pressure you feel and the more satisfied you are.
But it’s not that simple.
Digging into the data finds that there’s no simple trajectory.
The picture is a lot more…

32. Messy.

33. We found examples of
experienced scholars who
were miserable & blocked
& inexperienced
academics who were
happy & productive.
“Writing can drop down your
priority list. You lose confidence –
you can lose your nerve. You’re
sitting there writing and you’re
thinking ‘why the hell would
anyone want to read this? This isn’t
important – this isn’t
interesting….”
Professor & honorary research
fellow, 25 yrs experience, published
over 200x.

34. We only found one thing
that was linked to both
productivity and
satisfaction and that was
whether they had
developed some kind of
personal productivity
‘system’ to help them
write.

35. A ‘system’ is the
combination of tactics,
routines & behaviours an
author uses to keep
motivated and find the
time to write.
And when an author has
one they are…

36. What does all this mean?
Two things.

37. #1. That academic authors aren’t just ‘content producers’.
They’re people with personal preferences, values & life goals
who often write & publish for deeply personal reasons (not just
to hit publishing targets) and get blocked or de-motivated for
equally personal reasons.
This in turn should impact how academic writers are
incentivised, encouraged & supported.

38. 2. That productivity is personal (& can be learned).
There is no one way to be productive as an academic author –
there are many ways scholars can find a system that works
for them personally and professionally
Because there’s no fixed link between productivity, satisfaction,
age or experience - effective habits can be learned by anyone.
And that should give hope to the most blocked writer.

39. Want the full findings?
Download for free at:
scholar.prolifiko.com