Perspectives on institutional valuing and support for academic and translational outputs in Japan and Australia

Abstract

AbstractThere is increasing expectation that research be communicated broadly to share knowledge across industry, professional, governmental, and public spheres. Scholarly publishers can benefit from the sharing of research beyond academia since the potential for societal impact encourages further support from both industry and governmental funders. This paper draws on qualitative in‐depth interview data from Australian‐ and Japanese‐based early career researchers (ECRs) to investigate how higher education institutions support the development of diverse communication skills needed by ECRs to effectively share their research both in academia and beyond. We found that sharing research for academic and other diverse audiences is often perceived as valued but may not always be supported. Output valuing was communicated in performance management, but there were compelling differences between the two nations, with Japanese‐based ECRs reporting a stronger expectation of research outputs for non‐academic audiences than their Australian counterparts. There were also indications that institutional support for both academic and translational outputs may change in response to nations' shifting research priorities.