Open AccessLand‐Grant University Faculty Attitudes in and Engagement with Open Source Scholarship and Commercialization
Author(s) -
Barham Brad,
Goldman Irwin,
Rijn Jordan,
Foltz Jeremy,
Agnes Maria Isabella
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
agricultural and environmental letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 2471-9625
DOI - 10.2134/ael2017.03.0008
Subject(s) - commercialization , land grant , scholarship , revenue , public relations , open innovation , open science , political science , business , marketing , economic growth , public administration , economics , finance , physics , astronomy
Core Ideas The push for open source/open access science recalls the formation of land grant universities. A 2016 LGU faculty survey revealed strong support for open source/open access science. Most based research choices around scientific curiosity than commercialization potential. Plant scientists had the highest reliance on licensing revenues but still only 3% of total lab revenues. It may be time to reassess the research model of public universities.Based on a nationally representative survey done in 2016, this article examines the attitudes and activities of agricultural and life science faculty at US land grant universities with respect to open access/open source versus commercialization of research. The findings reveal pervasive faculty support for open scientific inquiry and sharing of knowledge and relatively low levels of participation in and laboratory market funding associated with commercialization activities. These results point toward the potential timeliness of a reassessment of public universities policies and public relations with respect to open science and commercialization.