A report by Frontier, published today, finds that academic publishing is an important facilitator of innovation, playing a role in all stages of the research and innovation cycle.

Academic excellence is a  strength of the UK economy, and the UK’s outstanding science and research base helps drive productivity and economic performance. Our report highlights the role of academic publishing and establishes a framework for the ways it enables innovation.

• Funding: Publishing helps funders assess quality of research and points to emerging research areas.
• Activity: Publishers support and improve research activity through peer review and additional contributions before, during and after publication.
• Outputs: Publishers help make research outputs more useful and ensure clear attribution, which is crucial to maintaining intellectual property.
• Innovation: Publishers create and develop tools and work with industry to improve firms’ ability to absorb and commercialise academic knowledge.

Stephen Lotinga, CEO of the Publishers Association, said:

“This report outlines the huge contribution that the academic publishing industry makes to our world-class research base, a contribution which is not always very well understood.”

Frontier regularly evaluates the impact of government policy on innovation, growth and productivity.

For more information please contact media@frontier-economics.com, or call +44 (0)20 7031 7000