Perceived academic freedom of researchers and relationships with motivation and well-being: A mixed-methods study

• Academic freedom is experienced variably despite similar structural protections. • Lack of funding and bureaucracy most often limit perceived freedom. • Perceived freedom positively links to autonomy, mastery, and job satisfaction. • Work strain increases when academic freedom is perceived as restricted. • Perceived academic freedom matters beyond formal structural guarantees. Academic freedom is widely recognized as a cornerstone of higher education, yet little is known about how individual researchers perceive their academic freedom and how such perceptions relate to their motivation and well-being. This mixed-methods study conceptualizes perceived academic freedom as a psychological resource reflecting researchers’ perceived epistemic agency under conditions of perceived constraint. A total of 483 researchers (age: M = 45.6 years, 62% female) from Germany, Norway, and South Africa spanning career stages and disciplinary fields completed a cross-sectional online survey including a newly developed scale of perceived academic freedom, potential psychological correlates (need satisfaction, achievement goals, well-being), and open-ended questions on experienced restrictions and their consequences. Structural equation modeling indicated that higher perceived academic freedom was associated with all psychological correlates considered, with particularly strong links to autonomy need satisfaction, job satisfaction, and lower work strain. Associations with mastery goal pursuit and relatedness need satisfaction were statistically significant but weaker, and the weakest association emerged for competence need satisfaction. Content analysis of open responses identified five types of perceived restrictions, most commonly lack of funding and organizational barriers. Restrictions on research conduct and communication were often experienced as intertwined. Many participants directly linked such restrictions with demotivating effects, but a few also described motivational reappraisal or adaptive coping. Taken together, findings highlight perceived academic freedom as a meaningful psychological construct—with direct implications for researchers’ epistemic agency, motivation, and well-being.