Within the framework of the article published today on Times Higher Education by Emeritus Professor Terry Young (link provided above), it becomes apparent that universities are poised to play a crucial role in curating and validating research conducted in the corporate sector.
The rationale behind this is straightforward: universities have relinquished the monopoly on research, with approximately 200 companies generating 40% of global research output. Furthermore, the challenge lies in establishing trust in corporate research results, particularly when negative outcomes could have severe implications, potentially leading to bankruptcy. https://pacheco-torgal.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-university-of-future.html
Continuing the discussion on curation and assessment, it is worth recalling a 2019 paper authored by a Full Professor at Stanford. This paper meticulously analyzed nearly 50 unicorns, including the infamous case of Theranos fraud: “High‐valuation companies that publish little or nothing in the peer‐reviewed literature may still have patents related to their products. One may argue that patents undergo rigorous evaluation. However, patents do not offer the same level of documentation as peer‐reviewed articles. For example, Theranos had over 100 patents, but these were unable to supplant the vacuum in their evidence....when a team of investigators used the Theranos technology to run 22 common lab tests versus the same tests run with other companies’ technologies, the problematic error rates became manifest.." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/eci.13072
PS - Just within the last two days, Clarivate Analytics took a significant step by incorporating peer review history into the extensive repository of nearly 30 million author records within the Web of Science platform. This recognition underscores the vital importance of meticulous paper curation as an essential academic duty. Whether by coincidence or design, Web of Science has chosen to spotlight my personal profile as an exemplary case https://publons.com/announcement/#your-review-contributions-in-web-of-science
