Publication and Patent Behavior of Academic Researchers: Conflicting, Reinforcing or Merely Co-Existing?

This paper examines whether the publication behavior of academic inventors (at K.U. Leuven) differs from their colleagues (non-inventors) working within similar fields of research. According to the authors, their analysis reveals that inventors publish significantly more. Moreover, no empirical evidence was found for the ‘skewing problem’. These findings not only suggest the co-existence of both activities; they may actually reinforce each other.