Abstract Traditional “Mertonian” social norms are thought to safeguard fairness and impartiality in academic science. However, as university-based research increasingly responds to market demands and stakeholder accountability, these ideals may be blending with, or supplanted by, industrial norms of science, reflecting a shift toward a ‘post-academic’ normative structure. Despite this potential transformation, empirical studies of contemporary scientists’ normative attitudes remain limited. We conducted an exploratory survey of 615 Canadian faculty and trainees to examine perceptions of academic and industrial norms, both as aspirational ideals and enacted behaviours. Specifically, we assessed: (1) continued endorsement of Mertonian norms, (2) perceived endorsement in practice, and (3) the extent to which industrial norms have permeated academic culture. We also explored how personal (e.g., career stage), contextual (e.g., discipline), and experiential (e.g., industrial research engagement) factors predict norm adherence. Our findings reveal a clear tension: while respondents strongly affirmed traditional academic norms as ideals, their assessments of actual practices diverged considerably. Moreover, normative orientations varied in subtle but meaningful ways by research domain, gender, career stage, industry-based research experience, and for international students. Taken together, these findings offer insight into the pressures reshaping the normative landscape of academic science in a Canadian context.
Bogard et al. (Mon,) studied this question.