• journal_title：The Leading Edge
• Contributor：Don Herron
• Publisher：Society of Exploration Geophysicists
• Date：2012-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.1190/tle31060700.1
• journal_abbrev：The Leading Edge
• issn：1070-485X
• volume：31
• issue：6
• firstpage：700
• section：TLE

In academic circles, the phrase “publish or perish” relates to the importance of regularly contributing to scientific journals in order to establish and maintain professional credentials. I've always thought that this friendly warning, most frequently issued to graduate students and associate professors, is a bit harsh, although accurate, and might be more realistically expressed as “publish or languish.” No matter—the pressure on geoscientists in the oil and gas industry to publish their work is not as intense, and careers are not necessarily made or broken based on the number of technical articles on which one's name appears (we all know that there is a vast quantity of excellent technical work in our industry that never appears publicly for reasons of business confidentiality or intellectual property).