Letter: The bureaucratisation of research

Sir: Lincoln Allison's ivory tower view of research is old hat, and few real world academics working at the forefront of their discipline would subscribe to it. The author suggests that scholarship and research frequently commissioned by industry, commerce, government and the European Community are mutually exclusive activities; they need not be and the choice, quite rightly in my view, remains with the researcher.

Research of whatever colour is a public good and therefore should be disseminated not only in specialist journals but in more accessible forms of output of interest to practitioners. The assessment of research, carried out by fellow academics under a well accepted peer- review process has not only enhanced the quantity of research but also its quality. Accepting the premise that around 1 per cent of research matters, then this cannot be bad.

Yours faithfully,

RAYMOND MADDEN

Director, Research Support

London Business School

London, NW1

7 April