Institutionalizing Openness in Academe: Influences on Faculty Publishing Practices

• In Event: 70.065 - Roundtable Session 27
  In Roundtable Session: 70.065-3 - Teachers and Teaching in the United States Today: Illustrations From K–12 and Higher Education

Abstract

This conceptual paper examines college and university intellectual property policies in order to illuminate the value tensions that result from increased commercialization trends in higher education. Drawing on the theory of academic capitalism, I discuss recent trends in institutional policy that claim ownership over faculty research and courseware – a quintessentially capitalistic trend. Using Richard Scott’s regulative, normative, cultural-cognitive framework of the institution, I analyze the institutional influences on faculty members to publish, promote, and disseminate their work in light of policies that tend to restrict the free flow of scholarly knowledge. I conclude that the goals and incentives underlying the three pillars are misaligned, and that this misalignment has large-scale implications for research policy and the academic profession.

Author

• Samantha Bernstein, University of Southern California