How Should Academic Physicians Decide What to Publish?

What you publish over the next five years is what you'll be known for, which makes every choice of what to write a strategic one.

What you publish over the next five years becomes your reputation. Start with what you want to be known for, then pick the projects that build toward it. Choose journals by who actually reads them. A steady line of related work builds a name for you. Scattered papers just fill a CV.

There was a clear shift in how I approached publishing once I started working with faculty members on their career strategy. I began noticing the difference between a publication record that was full and one that was coherent.

Both could have similar numbers. They read entirely differently to a promotion committee, and they built entirely different things in the field.

What changed in my own thinking was understanding that every publication decision is also a time allocation decision. The paper you say yes to is the paper you can't also write.

That framing made the strategy obvious, and made the reactive approach I had defaulted to earlier look exactly like what it was.

Writing for a CV vs. Writing for Visibility

A publication added to a CV increases the number. A publication in the right journal, on the right topic, reaching the right audience, increases visibility in a specific area where you are trying to be known.

These are not the same outcome.

The faculty member who publishes twenty papers across ten different topic areas has a full CV. The faculty member who publishes twenty papers in a coherent line of inquiry in a visible journal has a developing reputation. Promotion committees see the difference. So do the editors, reviewers, and field leaders who decide who to invite and who to collaborate with. Empirical work on academic promotion shows that faculty whose scholarly identity is recognizable, with a coherent line of inquiry rather than scattered output, are more likely to be invited into the sponsorship and visibility opportunities (editorial roles, grant review panels, named lectures) that promotion committees treat as evidence of national reputation.¹²

What Strategic Publication Planning Looks Like

Strategic publication planning starts with one question: what do I want to be known for in five years, and what body of published work would establish that identity?

Working backward from that answer produces a very different set of writing priorities than the reactive approach most faculty default to.

It means choosing projects that contribute to the defined line, even when other opportunities are available. It means selecting journals based on who reads them, the audience that matters for your visibility goal, not only based on impact factor.

It also means saying no. The collaborative paper that adds a different direction to your CV consumes time that could have produced the paper that reinforces your line.

Quality, Placement, and Audience

The three variables that determine a publication's strategic value are quality, placement, and audience. Quality is the most discussed and the least differentiating, most faculty in academic medicine produce work of comparable quality.

Placement and audience are where strategy creates advantage.

Placement means the journal. A paper in the leading journal in your specialty creates more reputation-building return than the same paper in a broader, higher-impact journal where your specialty leadership doesn't regularly read. The audience is specific: who needs to read this work for it to advance your stated goals?

Why Strategic Publishing Matters for the Whole Department

When faculty publish strategically, departments benefit too. Visible, coherent publication records attract trainees, collaborators, and grant reviewers. They build the department's national profile in ways that scattered output does not.

Helping faculty publish strategically, not just prolifically, is one of the highest-return investments a department can make in its people. AMedSG exists to help make that investment practical.

What to Do This Week

• Write your five-year publication goal in one sentence: "I want to be known as the person who has produced the defining body of work on [specific topic] in [specific field]." Then ask: does my current publication list move toward that, or away from it?
• Look at your last five publications. Are they telling a coherent story, or are they a collection of whatever was available? If you couldn't defend a clear line of inquiry, the committee can't see one either.
• Identify your next three publications Not what you are collaborating on by default,, but what you would write if you were being strategic. What would they be? Are you writing them?
• For your next collaboration request, ask one question before saying yes: does this paper belong in my line, or does it branch away from it? The answer should determine whether you accept.

FAQ:

How should I decide what to publish? Work backward from what you want to be known for in five years, and choose projects and journals that build that specific line of inquiry.

Does publishing more help my career? Placement and audience create the advantage, not volume. A coherent line of work reads as a developing reputation. Scattered output reads as a full CV.

How do I choose which journal to submit to? Choose by audience, the people whose attention advances your stated goal, not by impact factor alone.

Reset & Refocus: www.amedsg.com

Faculty Excellence & Retention Initiative: www.amedsg.com/feri

References

1. Ayyala MS, Skarupski K, Bodurtha JN, et al. Mentorship is not enough: exploring sponsorship and its role in career advancement in academic medicine. Acad Med. 2019;94(1):94-100.
2. DeCastro R, Sambuco D, Ubel PA, Stewart A, Jagsi R. Mentor networks in academic medicine: moving beyond a dyadic conception of mentoring for junior faculty researchers. Acad Med. 2013;88(4):488-496.

Publication strategy is a core framework in Reset & Refocus coaching and the Academic Kickstarter Course. Faculty: reach out at www.amedsg.com. Chairs and Deans: FERI brings publication strategy into department-wide faculty development as a dedicated resource. Learn more at www.amedsg.com/feri.