Abstract
This paper seeks to provide a better understanding of how researchers
incorporate external (non-academic) influences in their research process. Firstly we
advance the notion of ‘openness’ as a researcher characteristic that describes researchers’
readiness to let external stimuli modify the different stages of the research cycle and we
identify the kind of behavioural changes expected from ‘open’ researchers. Secondly, we
look at the factors explaining researchers’ openness. We empirically analyse researchers’
openness drawing upon a database containing 1583 researchers from the Spanish Council
for Scientific Research (CSIC). We found that researchers open in any stage of the
research process tend to be also open through the rest of the stages. We also found that
personal factors related to researchers’ identity and past experiences are key aspects that
determine researchers’ openness. Policy implications are derived regarding suggestions
to foster researchers’ openness.
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