Do I need a CNS paper to get a faculty job?

There’s a lively exchange occurring among scientists on Twitter right now regarding the advice that you need a Cell, Nature, or Science (CNS) paper in order to land a faculty job. 

There are lots of well-established professors chiming in that they didn’t have a CNS paper when they were hired, and that they don’t require CNS papers when judging job applicants. 

That’s all well and good, but I find their statements somewhat disingenuous, possibly outdated, and somewhat misleading for postdocs who want to continue in academia. In order to get a faculty job, you must have a strong publication record in respected journals.  This is the spirit of the CNS advice.  There is no way around it.  This is an absolute requirement, though the CNS advice certainly does not need to be taken literally.  The person with five PLOS Genetics papers is perhaps even more likely to get a faculty job than the person with one Cell paper. 

So where does the perception of the CNS requirement come from?  Everyone wants to work at Harvard, Rockefeller, Stanford, etc.  These places get hundreds of applicants for every position.  They generally hire people who not only have one fancy paper, but a history of multiple fancy papers at each stage of training.  These are the superstars getting hired at superstar institutions.  These are the most notable hires in the country, the ones people are talking about, the ones who are giving invited talks at conferences in their first year as a PI, the ones who get the early career awards from the scientific societies, the ones who get the NIH Director’s/Pew/Searle/BWF/HHMI grants.  When these are the only faculty hires we pay attention to, of course it seems like you need to have a CNS paper to get a job.

But!  There exists a world of top notch science outside of Harvard, Stanford, Rockefeller, and the like!  That person with the 5 PLOS Genetics papers we talked about earlier – they get hired at State U, do great science with great students, are equally successful with NIH grants, often have even more resources and collaborators, have a less stressful environment with lighter salary recovery and tenure requirements, and ultimately have fulfilling careers.   

So if you want a more balanced picture of what is required to get a faculty job (not necessarily the “dream” faculty job), then expand your analyses to include the CVs of people hired at multiple different types of institutions.