Publish and perish: mental health among communication and media scholars

Abstract

Studies point to a significantly higher prevalence of mental health issues among academics compared to most other working populations. However, we know relatively little about the situation within the field of media and communication studies. Based on an international survey of 1028 researchers within this field, we found mental health issues to be widespread. Early career researchers, women, and those in nonpermanent positions were significantly more strongly affected by these issues than scholars in later career stages, men, and those in permanent employment. Academics in our field worry most about structural aspects of their work, most notably about publication pressure and future career prospects. We argue that while our findings are somewhat aligned with results from or across other fields, they are still worrisome. We thus argue for the need to start a conversation about how to reduce the mental burden, especially for young and early career researchers.