Drives towards research productivity: International trends

Abstract

Introduction 2 Approach followed 4 The policy process (including language in education) 5 Policy implementer appointments 12 Policy fatigue

Science at risk? Considering the importance of academic freedom for STEM research production across 17 OECD countries

“…This group includes countries like China [ 26 , 27 ] and Russia [ 28 ] that are simultaneously embracing neo-nationalism and autocratic control of higher education. While education researchers have argued that academic freedom has, at least in part, facilitated research production, the evidence behind these claims is mostly anecdotal [ 29 , 30 ].…”

“…Many researchers have discussed the hypothesized link between research production and economic growth [ 7 ]. Some researchers [ 29 ] also have suggested that research production increases when scholars can research in the atmosphere of academic freedom, but to the best of our knowledge, none have tested the link empirically. Prior literature suggests several reasons research production might increase when scholars enjoy academic freedom.…”

Roles, requirements and autonomy of academic researchers

“…Similarly, Lawrence (2002) notes that the pressure to publish may lead to unethical authorship practices and other academic misconduct. To that end, some researchers may engage in unethical behaviour and become co‐authors, even without substantial contribute to a written piece; produce an abundance of articles based on a modest dataset; use students' data instead of conducting their own studies; or compromise quality of the research process at the expense of getting data fast (Niemczyk & Rossouw, 2019).…”

“…The same situation is reflective of other external funding sources that provide financial support with specific return expectations. Scholarly literature (e.g., Carvalho & Diogo, 2017; Niemczyk & Rossouw, 2019) showed that the increase in institutional financial autonomy often comes at a price of relinquishing some control to financial supporters. Because academic researchers often require financial support for their projects, they must comply with specific criteria outlined in the call for funding, which may not align with researchers' research plans or preferences.…”

“…The same situation is reflective of other external funding sources that provide financial support with specific return expectations. Scholarly literature (e.g., Carvalho & Diogo, 2017;Niemczyk & Rossouw, 2019) showed that the increase in institutional financial autonomy often comes at a price of relinquishing some control to financial supporters.…”