ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION The book has focused on discussing the moral virtues (and vices) associated with the research process. It has not considered, thus far, why academics ought to do research in the first place. Why, in other words, is research a moral imperative for academics? Such an imperative might appear to be a “given” to some academics who regard doing research as integral to their sense of identity and way of life. Others contend that research is essential to their academic freedom. Indeed, the right to conduct research and disseminate the results of such work was first asserted by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in its Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure in 1940 (AAUP, 2008). However, the history of the university demonstrates that academics have not always been researchers. Rather, the notion of the university as a research body only began to take hold in Germany in the early nineteenth century and slowly spread elsewhere (Smith, 1999). In more modern times, there has been a trend toward the separation and “unbundling” (Kinser, 1998) of research from other elements of the academic role. Here, specialist positions such as teacher, instructional designer, and research professor are replacing that of the traditional, “all-round” academic.
