Definition of terms

Throughout this dissertation, I utilize terms that have been widely used and may refer to a variety of processes and concepts. In chapter two I explore different meanings that have been assigned to some of these terms. Here I provide a brief definition of the ways I use each term.

Collaboration
In this dissertation, collaboration refers to people working together. The term itself does not necessarily imply how they work together.

Research
I define research as being a systematic generation of knowledge that is shared. I explore the conception of research in greater detail in chapter six.

University researchers
I use the term university researcher or university-based researcher to refer to those researchers who are part of university life as faculty or as students. Although the work of those researchers who work, for example, in centres for excellence shares many characteristics with university-based researchers, they are not always employed or related to the university in the same way. Therefore they do not experience the same kinds of rewards and constraints that university-based researchers do.

Non-university researchers
Non-university researchers are professionals working with the government, centres of excellence, professional unions, private companies, and grass roots organisations engaged in research as part of their jobs. Some of them are university-trained individuals, who, instead of pursuing university careers, have taken different professional paths. A large portion of the product of their work is distributed through research reports and other kinds of publications which often are the focus of attention of the media and of the workers and practitioners in different applied disciplines. Some of these researchers, especially those located in centres of excellence, also choose to write academic papers.

Academia/academic
The term "academic" conjures different images for different people. Sue Jackson (2000), for example, examined how students in higher education constructed the notion of "academic". She argues that notions of "academic" are clearly related to gender.