An operational, policy-oriented research categorization scheme

Discarding the ‘basic science/applied science’ dichotomy: A knowledge utilization triangle classification system of research journals

“…Some of above problems can be partially circumvented by introducing the concept of ‘institutional research environment,’ i.e., the organizational environment in which research activities are conducted. The notion of classifying research activities according to the institutional environment of researchers dates back to the 1960s (Reagan, 1967), an idea further explored by a series of studies during the 1970s (e.g., Falk, 1973; Brooks, 1980; Langenberg, 1980). Two of those environments are particularly relevant: the business sector and the medical sector.…”

Measuring Science: is there “Basic Research” without Statistics?

“…All these re¯ections illustrate a long and continuing academic debate on the relationship between science and technology. 24 Given the malleability of the concept, several people concluded that the de®nition was essentially social (Storer, 1964) or political (Cohen, 1948;Shepard, 1956;Daniels, 1967;Reagan, 1967;Falk, 1973;Layton, 1976;Toulmin, 1980;Gieryn, 1983;Kline, 1995), and at best needed to protect research from unrealizable expectations (Brooks, 1967). Some also argued that the de®nition rested on moral values.…”

“…Still others preferred abandoning the classi®cation and suggested disaggregating research by sector only ± university, government and industry (Reagan, 1967). None of these alternatives was unanimously considered advantageous: applied research can be as broad as basic research (Falk, 1973;David, 1980;Langenberg, 1980), sectors are often multipurpose (Brooks, 1980), as evidenced, for example, by the presence of applied research in universities (Rosenberg and Nelson, 1994;Crow and Tucker, 2001), and so on.…”