TY - JOUR
T1 - Does it take two to tango? Factors related to the ease of societal uptake of scientific knowledge
AU - Olmos-Penuela, Julia
AU - Benneworth, Paul Stephen
AU - Castro-Martinez, Elena
PY - 2016/6/8
Y1 - 2016/6/8
N2 - Science policy increasingly focuses on maximising societal benefits from science and technology investments, but often reduces those benefits to activities involving codifying and selling knowledge, thereby idealising best practice academic behaviours around entrepreneurial superstars. This paper argues that societal value depends on knowledge being used, making knowledge’s eventual exploitation partly dependent upon on whether other users—societal or scientific—can use that knowledge (i.e. on how far new knowledge is cognate with users’ existing knowledge). When scientists incorporate user knowledge into their research processes, what we call ‘open research behaviours’, their knowledge may be more usable. We develop a set of hypotheses concerning whether researchers’ personal and professional characteristics are associated with open research behaviours. We find evidence which suggests that, whilst personal characteristics are not associated with open research behaviours, researchers who experience professional signals validating open research behaviours are more likely to demonstrate such behaviours.
AB - Science policy increasingly focuses on maximising societal benefits from science and technology investments, but often reduces those benefits to activities involving codifying and selling knowledge, thereby idealising best practice academic behaviours around entrepreneurial superstars. This paper argues that societal value depends on knowledge being used, making knowledge’s eventual exploitation partly dependent upon on whether other users—societal or scientific—can use that knowledge (i.e. on how far new knowledge is cognate with users’ existing knowledge). When scientists incorporate user knowledge into their research processes, what we call ‘open research behaviours’, their knowledge may be more usable. We develop a set of hypotheses concerning whether researchers’ personal and professional characteristics are associated with open research behaviours. We find evidence which suggests that, whilst personal characteristics are not associated with open research behaviours, researchers who experience professional signals validating open research behaviours are more likely to demonstrate such behaviours.
KW - IR-100930
KW - METIS-317476
U2 - 10.1093/scipol/scw016
DO - 10.1093/scipol/scw016
M3 - Article
VL - 43
SP - 751
EP - 762
JO - Science and public policy
JF - Science and public policy
SN - 0302-3427
IS - 6
ER -