Publishing, Teaching, and the Philosophy Job Market (guest post)

How many publications do early career job applicants in academic philosophy have? How many courses have they taught? How have the answers to these questions changed over the past decade? These are some of the questions addressed by Travis LaCroix in the following guest post. Dr. LaCroix is assistant professor of philosophy at Durham University and co-director of Academic Philosophy Data Analysis (APDA). The post is based on data gathered in the 2025 APDA survey. (A version of this post also appears at the APDA blog.) Publishing, Teaching, and the Philosophy Job Market by Travis LaCroix How much publication and teaching experience is “enough” to secure a stable career in academic philosophy? Is a modest record at graduation sufficient, or is there an implicit expectation that scholars substantially expand both their research and instructional portfolios during postdoctoral or contingent employment years? To explore these questions, we analyze a decade of data tracking graduates from 2014 through 2025 solicited from the 2025 APDA survey. The synopsis: while both publication counts and teaching volume increase steadily across career stages, they follow distinct paths. Publication counts show a “more is better” signal for academic retention, with a portfolio of roughly 4–5 articles being typical by the time scholars secure their first permanent position. In contrast, teaching experience appears to reach a point of diminishing returns; those who secure permanent roles often graduate with less total teaching volume than those in contingent roles, suggesting that institutional prestige and formal pedagogical support often outweigh raw instructional quantity. Importantly, our analysis reveals that these two metrics are statistically independent. There is no evidence of a “trade-off” between teaching and publication experience, where focusing on one detracts from the other; rather, they represent two separate pipelines shaped by departmental funding models, institutional prestige, and disciplinary norms. Summary Statistics We begin with a summary of statistics across key career stages. Publications Current students report a mean of 1.26 articles (median = 0, n = 165), indicating that most current students (across all years) have not yet published. At graduation, the mean rises to 2.01 articles (median = 1, n = 296). By the time of first permanent position, the mean increases to 5.45 articles (median = 4, n = 255). Book publications remain comparatively rare at early.. The post Publishing, Teaching, and the Philosophy Job Market (guest post) first appeared on Daily Nous.