Conflicts between research funders and publishers

What is it about?

University employment contracts and performance indicators require academics to win research funding and publish findings. No-strings government grant programs for pure research are deliberately underbudgeted, to force researchers into applied research with end-user funding partnerships. These funding partners put pressure on researchers regarding publication, eg using veto rights, courtesy coauthorship demands, control of data or IP, or attempts to modify wording. But academic publishing agreements require accurate author lists, open data, verifiable methods and results, and unbiased reporting. Individual academics must navigate between these competing legal demands and financial pressures, accepting risks in order to comply with job requirements. One way to minimize this problem would be to establish national registers of inappropriate pressures from funding agencies, with verified cases lodged by University legal services teams.

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Why is it important?

It’s an under-recognised risk faced by University academic staff, and it is more severe for academics in under-represented groups and lower-status disciplines.

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