‘Publish or Perish’ is now a card game — not just an academic’s life


A player wins by racking up more citations than the competition, even if that means engaging in a little light plagiarism.

By Max Kozlov



A prototype of a card game designed to allow frustrated academics to blow off steam.Credit: Max Bai/Publish or Perish

Fabricating data, throwing academic shade at other scientists, publishing a mountain of papers that receive a towering heap of citations: cynics might describe these as steps necessary to achieve academic success.

They are also goals for players of ‘Publish or Perish’ — a new card game that might hit close to home for researchers trying to navigate the often-labyrinthine and cut-throat institution of academia. The name refers to the common description of academia as a system that rewards researchers who publish their findings in prestigious scholarly journals and punishes those who don’t.

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With fake manuscript titles ranging from “Unpacking the Aerodynamics of Flying Pigs” to “Why Dogs Follow You into the Bathroom: Insights into Canine Codependency”, the game aims to poke fun at the “absurdity” of what it takes to build a successful scientific career, says Bai.

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