The micro-dynamics of scientific choice: research project motivations among public affairs academics

Author:

Nelson John P12ORCID

Affiliation:

1. School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University , 800 S Cady Mall—Suite 401, Tempe, AZ 85287-6002, USA

2. School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology , 258 4th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0345, USA

Abstract

Abstract Academic researchers’ choices about research projects to pursue are an important mechanism in societal allocation of research effort. It is unclear whether researchers’ criteria for project choice align with those articulated by policy scholars and philosophers. Many potential criteria for project choice are commonly discussed in scholarly and popular literature, but they have been little studied on the individual level. I review and catalog such potential criteria and then empirically explore researcher motivations for project choice through factor analysis of survey data from 409 authors of research articles in major public administration and public policy journals. I find empirical support for personal gain, societal importance, and intellectual interest as research motivations. These motivations do not neatly align with proposed ideal criteria for scientific choice. Thus, such criteria must be translated to speak to researchers’ personal interests to achieve expression in individual scientific choice.

Funder

National Science Foundation

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Public Administration,Geography, Planning and Development

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