The Publish or Perish Game: About the Crazy Adventure of Publishing Scientific Journals

I am constantly searching for valuable games to facilitate learning, so I came across a trial version of The Publish or Perish Game, created by Max Hui Bai.

When dissecting this game, it becomes very clear that the author knows the process of publishing research articles in scientific journals, a process that dates back to the 17th century and that, to no one’s surprise, has changed very little since then.

I became familiar with the mechanisms of scientific journal publishing when I graduated from university at the end of the last century. I collaborated as an editorial assistant for the journal El Cuento en Red for several years. This job proved to be definitive for my life since for more than a decade; I have been in charge of the scientific journal Economía Creativa, a peer-reviewed and indexed biannual publication that I co-edit at CENTRO and which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary of uninterrupted publication.

Thanks to these two publications and my experience as an author and referee of scientific articles in various journals, I corroborate that the irrational and, at times, absurd mechanics suggested by The Publish or Perish Game are but a mirror of the daily reality involved in the adventure of editing scientific journals: the game is quite simple in its logic and follows the path of an author to reach his or her publication goal.