J.M. Gullick was one of a number of British colonial administrators in Malaysia who combined an official career with significant contributions to the academic study of the history and culture of Malaysia. Other notable examples of scholar-administrators are R.O. Winstedt and Victor Purcell. Gullick was an extremely prolific writer and continued to publish into his old age. In addition to the scholarly monographs on which his reputation rests, such as "Indigenous Political Systems of Western Malaya" (1958) and numerous specialist articles in journals, he also published introductions to Malaysian history intended for a general audience.