Why some technical professionals write… and some don´t

To find out if writing really does help establish a reputation, and why some technical professionals write and some don´t, a questionnaire was distributed to a sampling of authors and non-authors at 19 IBM development laboratories and manufacturing plants in the US and Europe. Respondents were asked how many articles for professional journals and technical magazines, and how many conference papers they had written. The authors were then asked their principal reasons for writing; what, if any, benefits have come of it; and what they think are the relative advantages and disadvantages, to the author, of writing for journals, technical magazines and conferences. Non-authors in the sample were asked the principal reasons that have held them back from writing articles and papers. The results of this survey are presented.