Fillers
The name of research has changed from a simple description to a term of honor, and the occupation itself has acquired an inherent sanctity; the quality of the work and its results are secondary. This is shown by the fantastic estimate placed upon research in our seats of learning. To do research is deemed nobler than to teach; the men whose names bring prestige to a university are those whose research has impressed others of equal "research potential." For, I repeat, it is not deemed necessary to discover if only one "produces," production being defined as publication. To bring new and valuable knowledge by lecturing before fifty or a hundred students a year is not research, for it is not publication, except in the legal sense. But to print this knowledge in a periodical where only a few will peer at it with skepticism or dismay—that is to enlarge human horizons, to make the university shine with a new glory, and to justify an early promotion.—Jacques Barzun: The House of Intellect. New York, Harper, 1959, p. 218.
