$33,000 Academic Journal Articles That Almost No One Reads

"An emeritus professor at the University of Missouri, Arthur Jago, in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article was skeptical of the claim that a majority of academic journal articles are never read. But Professor Jago accepts that many—maybe most—journal articles are rarely cited. And he notes that some academic journals have circulations of well under 1,000, many copies sitting unread on library shelves. I suspect I have written many academic papers where the number of readers is closer to 10 than 100. This blog will be read by far more readers than the typical meticulously researched paper that I wrote in my academic prime. In an earlier era, say 1960, faculty at most universities were not expected to do a lot of research. At a mid-quality university, the teaching load might be six courses a year –three classes meeting three hours weekly taught each semester. Today, at a similar university,  research is promoted much more vigorously, so teaching loads on average have fallen, say to four courses annually. At research-intensive institutions, the load is lower; at schools with very modest research expectations, it is higher...."