Two cultures: "them and us'' in the academic world

TL;DR

This paper discusses the divide between academic disciplines and professional services in research impact assessment, highlighting the need for collaboration and better understanding to improve the academic landscape.

Contribution

It introduces the metaphor of two cultures to describe the gap between academics and professional services, based on personal experiences and calls for constructive dialogue.

Findings

Identifies a chasm between academics and professional services.

Highlights the influence of impact measurement on research evaluation.

Calls for collaboration to bridge the divide.

Abstract

Impact of academic research onto the non-academic world is of increasing importance as authorities seek return on public investment. Impact opens new opportunities for what are known as "professional services": as scientometrical tools bestow some with confidence they can quantify quality, the impact agenda brings lay measurements to evaluation of research. This paper is partly inspired by the famous "two cultures" discussion instigated by C.P. Snow over 60 years ago. He saw a chasm between different academic disciplines and I see a chasm between academics and professional services, bound into contact through competing targets. This paper draws on my personal experience and experiences recounted to me by colleagues in different universities in the UK. It is aimed at igniting discussions amongst people interested in improving the academic world and it is intended in a spirit of collaboration and constructiveness. As a professional services colleague said, what I have to say "needs to be said". It is my pleasure to submit this paper to the Festschrift devoted to the 60th birthday of a renowned physicist, my good friend and colleague Ihor Mryglod. Ihor's role as leader of the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics in Lviv has been essential to generating some of the impact described in this paper and forms a key element of the story I wish to tell.