5.1.5 The Social Aspects of Academic Communities
The social aspects of academic communities are also taken into consideration in the interpretation of genre variation.The discussion of the social aspects in the present study is drawn on the research of academic profession.Clark(1973)identified four lines of enquiry in the area of Sociology of Higher Education,and research into Academic Profession,which examines the professional life of academics,is one of them.Although Master’s students are not academics,they,as newcomers to a community,are very likely to adapt to the academic conventions of the community,which may have formed and developed under the influence of the social features of a community.In this section,I will first explore the goal of scientific research perceived by researchers and their motivations for doing research;and then I will look into the role that academic writing plays in helping researchers achieve the goal;finally,studies of local variations of the academic culture in China are reviewed.
5.1.5.1 The Goal of Scientific Research
Becher and Trowler(2001),after reviewing studies on motivations of academic researchers,propose that“the desire to develop a reputation in the field and to contribute significantly to it”is among the primary motivations of academics(p.75).According to Becher and Trowler,since teaching does not earn much recognition from established figures in the field,academics tend to pay more attention to doing research than teaching.Based on empirical data,they also claim that the quest for recognition as one of the primary motivations exists across a range of disciplines,including both hard and soft sciences.In addition,they find evidence showing that recognition is a major incentive for scientific research in both the UK(Henkel,2000)and the US(Sax,Astin,Korn,&Gilmartin,1999).
Since the publication of Becher and Trowler’s book,more than a decade has passed and a lot of changes have taken place in higher education such as the growth of academic research commercialization.Some researchers claim that financial incentives have taken on an important role in scientific research(e.g.Bains,2005).However,the studies of Lam(2011;2015)into the commercial behaviour of academics,which are based on 36 interviews and 735 questionnaires with scientists from five major UK universities,shows that the majority of the scientists are motivated by reputational rewards and they see financial rewards as a means of obtaining reputational rewards.Apart from financial and reputation rewards,the intrinsic satisfaction of solving puzzles is also regarded as a major motivation in Lam’s studies.
The studies of motivations of scientific research show that an important goal of doing research for academics is to develop a scholarly reputation and to be recognized in the field,and this goal is social in nature.Reputation and recognition is associated with the citation count(Hermanowicz,2012).Therefore,making more people in the field aware of one’s research and being referenced can be seen as one of the ways of obtaining recognition.Next,the role of academic writing as a means of promoting one’s research and socializing in the academic world will be discussed.
5.1.5.2 Academic Writing as a Social Action
Becher and Trowler(2001)maintain that the published literature is the“most accessible and durable manifestation of the research activity it embraces”(p.110).In other words,academic writing is a major way of publicizing one’s research in the scientific world.However,whether a publication would reach the right people and attract citations depends on a number of factors.One way of drawing audiences is through referencing others first in the writing(Becher &Trowler,2001).Hyland(2004)observed that references are made to help“writers to establish a persuasive epistemological and social framework for the acceptance”of the writers’arguments(p.22).By relating one’s work with others’in the field,the author socializes with the academic community.
5.1.5.3 Local Variations of the Global Academic Community
As stated by Becher and Trowler(2001),a global disciplinary community,which can be seen as an academic tribe,may have its own unique culture,but local communities of the same discipline,under the influence of different national cultures,may show variations in the academic culture.Teichler,Arimoto and Cummings(2013)report a study on the varied academic culture,in which the data were collected by over 100 scholars from a variety of disciplines in 8 years(2004-2012)by administrating identical questionnaires in 19 countries and regions,including China and the US.Three distinctive features were observed in the publication behaviour of academics in China compared with the US and other countries:First,over a period of three years,academics in China(2.2 on average)presented far fewer conference papers than their peers in the US(5.2 on average);Second,more articles are published in peer-reviewed journals in advanced countries(82% on average)than in emerging countries and the percentage in China is the lowest(35%);Third,only 3% of the publications written by academics in China were co-authored with scholars in another country over a period of three years,while on average,one third of the publications written by academics participating in the study were co-authored with scholars not located in the same country.It seems that scholars in China tend to have less international cooperation in research,though Teichler et al.did not report the percentage of co-authoring with scholars in the same country and thus we do not know if Chinese academics do not like the idea of cooperation in research at all or just have fewer opportunities for international collaboration.In any case,the differences between Chinese academics and their peers in other countries indicate that the former are less involved in the activities of their academic social circle and do not have a strong sense of community.