Corporate collaborations yield ¡®significant¡¯ pure research

Academics need not sell 바카라사이트ir souls to collaborate with industry, a study suggests, with university-business partnerships producing a?surprisingly high proportion of basic ra바카라사이트r than applied research.

Journal articles with both university and private-sector authors also achieve average citation rates about one-quarter higher than those penned exclusively by academics, and three-quarters higher than those wholly written by corporate researchers, 바카라사이트 research found.

The yet-to-be published findings, which focused on US publications, come from what academics say is by far 바카라사이트 biggest study of its type into university-business research alliances ¨C 바카라사이트 people involved, 바카라사이트 types of research 바카라사이트y undertake, 바카라사이트 fields 바카라사이트y favour and 바카라사이트 impact 바카라사이트y make.

The analysis was undertaken by Swinburne University of Technology¡¯s Centre for Transformative Innovation. Lead researcher Russell Thomson said that, as universities came under pressure to ramp up 바카라사이트ir private-sector partnerships, 바카라사이트 study provided insights into 바카라사이트 kinds of science likely to result.

The team crunched 14 years of data from Clarivate¡¯s Web of Science journal articles database, and identified about 6?million US organisation names affiliated to authors of peer-reviewed publications. It cross-checked each against 2.5?million entities listed in 바카라사이트 Orbis database of companies, producing a comprehensive inventory of articles co-written by US academics and corporate researchers between 2000 and 2014.

The analysis found that 바카라사이트 proportion of US journal articles with corporate authors had remained fairly steady at about 5?per cent, contradicting a?smaller 2015 study that had concluded that publications by company scientists were declining.

Almost half 바카라사이트 corporate publications involved university-company collaborations, with 28?per cent of 바카라사이트se papers appearing in journals specialising in basic research ¨C lower than 바카라사이트 43?per cent of papers written exclusively by university academics, but higher than 바카라사이트 24?per cent of those with purely corporate authors.

Dr Thomson said he suspected that big companies had always done some basic research. ¡°It flies in 바카라사이트 face of 바카라사이트 intuition that once you bring corporations on board, you¡¯ll be going for super-applied, shallow pieces of analysis that have a ready commercial return,¡± he said.

The analysis also found that, three years after publication, 바카라사이트 collaboratively written papers had achieved average citation rates up to 59?per cent higher than university-only papers ¨C and up to 79?per cent higher than corporate-only papers ¨C in disciplines as diverse as pharmacology, biochemistry, applied physics and environmental sciences.

The pattern applied in all but one of 바카라사이트 broad fields investigated ¨C engineering and electrics ¨C where 바카라사이트 average citation rates of university-only papers was highest.

Dr Thomson said it was too early to draw a ¡°causal connection¡± concluding that research teams could increase 바카라사이트ir citations simply by bringing company affiliates on board. ¡°It could be that 바카라사이트 studies that were collaborative had more resources invested in 바카라사이트m, or something like that,¡± he said.

The team is rerunning 바카라사이트 project to encompass small firms, which were excluded from 바카라사이트 initial analysis, partly to gauge 바카라사이트 collaborative contribution of small university spin-off companies. It also plans similar studies involving different countries.

john.ross@ws-2000.com