The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations.
What motivates the research strategies of nations and institutions? We suggest that research primarily serves two masters-altruism and economic growth. Some nations focus more research in altruistic (or non-economic) fields while others focus more research in fields associated with economic growth....
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doaj-979ca607314e478288fdc348153d0ec02020-11-24T20:45:05ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032017-01-01121e016938310.1371/journal.pone.0169383The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations.Richard KlavansKevin W BoyackWhat motivates the research strategies of nations and institutions? We suggest that research primarily serves two masters-altruism and economic growth. Some nations focus more research in altruistic (or non-economic) fields while others focus more research in fields associated with economic growth. What causes this difference? Are there characteristics that would suggest why a nation is more aligned with altruism or economic growth? To answer this question, we have identified nine major fields of research by analyzing the publication activity of 4429 institutions using Scopus data. Two fields of research are clearly altruistic (there is relatively little involvement by industry) and two fields are clearly aligned with economic growth. The altruistic vs. economic nature of nations based on their publication profiles across these fields is correlated with national indicators on wealth, education, capitalism, individualism, power, religion, and language. While previous research has suggested that national research strategy is aligned with national wealth, our analysis shows that national wealth is not highly correlated with the tradeoff between altruistic and economic motives. Instead, the tradeoff is largely captured by a culture of individualism. Accordingly, implications for national research strategies are discussed.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5215941?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Richard Klavans Kevin W Boyack |
spellingShingle |
Richard Klavans Kevin W Boyack The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Richard Klavans Kevin W Boyack |
author_sort |
Richard Klavans |
title |
The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations. |
title_short |
The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations. |
title_full |
The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations. |
title_fullStr |
The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations. |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Research Focus of Nations: Economic vs. Altruistic Motivations. |
title_sort |
research focus of nations: economic vs. altruistic motivations. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2017-01-01 |
description |
What motivates the research strategies of nations and institutions? We suggest that research primarily serves two masters-altruism and economic growth. Some nations focus more research in altruistic (or non-economic) fields while others focus more research in fields associated with economic growth. What causes this difference? Are there characteristics that would suggest why a nation is more aligned with altruism or economic growth? To answer this question, we have identified nine major fields of research by analyzing the publication activity of 4429 institutions using Scopus data. Two fields of research are clearly altruistic (there is relatively little involvement by industry) and two fields are clearly aligned with economic growth. The altruistic vs. economic nature of nations based on their publication profiles across these fields is correlated with national indicators on wealth, education, capitalism, individualism, power, religion, and language. While previous research has suggested that national research strategy is aligned with national wealth, our analysis shows that national wealth is not highly correlated with the tradeoff between altruistic and economic motives. Instead, the tradeoff is largely captured by a culture of individualism. Accordingly, implications for national research strategies are discussed. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5215941?pdf=render |
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