Singh Gerald G, Farjalla Vinicius F, Chen Bing, Pelling Andrew E, Ceyhan Elvan, Dominik Martin, Alisic Eva, Kerr Jeremy, Selin Noelle E, Bassioni Ghada, Bennett Elena, Kemp Andrew H, Chan Kai Ma
Nereus Program, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada.
Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada.
Front Ecol Environ. 2019 Sep;17(7):375-382. doi: 10.1002/fee.2084. Epub 2019 Jul 30.
Maintaining the continued flow of benefits from science, as well as societal support for science, requires sustained engagement between the research community and the general public. On the basis of data from an international survey of 1092 participants (634 established researchers and 458 students) in 55 countries and 315 research institutions, we found that institutional recognition of engagement activities is perceived to be undervalued relative to the societal benefit of those activities. Many researchers report that their institutions do not reward engagement activities despite institutions' mission statements promoting such engagement. Furthermore, institutions that actually measure engagement activities do so only to a limited extent. Most researchers are strongly motivated to engage with the public for selfless reasons, which suggests that incentives focused on monetary benefits or career progress may not align with researchers' values. If institutions encourage researchers' engagement activities in a more appropriate way - by moving beyond incentives - they might better achieve their institutional missions and bolster the crucial contributions of researchers to society.
维持科学带来的持续益处以及社会对科学的支持，需要研究界与公众之间持续的互动。基于对来自55个国家和315个研究机构的1092名参与者（634名资深研究人员和458名学生）进行的国际调查数据，我们发现，相对于这些活动的社会效益而言，机构对互动活动的认可被认为是被低估的。许多研究人员报告称，尽管机构的使命声明提倡这种互动，但他们的机构并未对互动活动给予奖励。此外，实际衡量互动活动的机构也只是在有限程度上这样做。大多数研究人员出于无私的原因积极与公众互动，这表明以金钱利益或职业发展为重点的激励措施可能与研究人员的价值观不一致。如果机构以更合适的方式鼓励研究人员的互动活动——超越激励措施——它们可能会更好地实现其机构使命，并加强研究人员对社会的重要贡献。
