Feedback explores the upsides (and downsides) of Publish or Perish, a game that simulates the experience of building a career in scientific research R

Fancy publishing 'nonsense' and sabotaging your fellow scientists?

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2025-01-21 22:00:05

Feedback explores the upsides (and downsides) of Publish or Perish, a game that simulates the experience of building a career in scientific research

Readers in the northern hemisphere are facing many more weeks of long, dark nights and cold weather, so what could be better than a fun card game? If you’re too cash-strapped for poker and have exhausted the comic potential of Cards Against Humanity (a state typically achieved after about 10 minutes of play), and if you have an interest in scientific research, you might want to consider Publish or Perish.

Created by social psychologist Max Hui Bai, Publish or Perish simulates the experience of building a career in scientific research. The game is to publish as many papers as possible and rack up citations – even if your papers are rubbish or you have to sabotage other players’ publications. Or as Bai puts it: “Players race to publish useless nonsense while sabotaging each other and delivering snarky comments.”

After releasing a beta version of the game for academics to try, Bai launched it on Kickstarter in late 2024, quickly racking up 5944 backers and $292,537 of funding. Those aren’t Brandon Sanderson Four Secret Novels numbers, but that’s still a lot of funding.