Condensed Matter Physics, 2020, vol. 23, No. 2, 23002
DOI:10.5488/CMP.23.23002
arXiv:2005.12081
Title:
Two cultures: "them and us" in the academic world
Author(s):
 
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R. Kenna
(Statistical Physics Group, Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry, England;
Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig-Lorraine-Lviv-Coventry
( 4)
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Impact of academic research onto the non-academic world is of increasing importance as authorities seek return on public investment.
Impact opens new opportunities for what are known as "professional services": as scientometrical tools bestow some with confidence
they can quantify quality, the impact agenda brings lay measurements to evaluation of research. This paper is partly inspired by the famous
"two cultures" discussion instigated by C.P. Snow over 60 years ago. He saw a chasm between different academic disciplines and I see a chasm
between academics and professional services, bound into contact through competing targets. This paper draws on my personal experience and
experiences recounted to me by colleagues in different universities in the UK. It is aimed at igniting discussions amongst people
interested in improving the academic world and it is intended in a spirit of collaboration and constructiveness. As a professional
services colleague said, what I have to say "needs to be said". It is my pleasure to submit this paper to the Festschrift devoted to
the 60th birthday of a renowned physicist, my good friend and colleague Ihor Mryglod. Ihor's role as leader of the Institute for
Condensed Matter Physics in Lviv has been essential to generating some of the impact described in this paper and forms a key element
of the story I wish to tell.
Key words:
two cultures, research evaluation, REF, impact, scientometrics, thermodynamics, statistical physics
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