Academics admit feeling pressure to embellish possible impact of research

By Jennifer Chubb and Richard Watermeyer. Academics applying for research funding have expressed their concern at feeling the need to exaggerate and embellish the possible future impact of their work. In a series of interviews with senior academics in the UK and Australia for our new study, several told us that the process of writing statements about the imagined future impact of their research could feel like the creation of “falsehoods” and “untruths”, particularly when the impact was not immediately apparent. More...