Performativity or peer-formativity? academics’ responses to research policy and regulation

Institutions have research policies and profiles, and academics know how to deliver within them, but how exactly do academics write to disseminate their research in performative settings? Drawing on the work of Mayrath, this research aimed to discover if academics see disengagement from other tasks as a factor in their writing and, if they do, how they do this. Forty-two UK academics responded to an email questionnaire. All respondents associated academic writing with disengagement from other tasks in two ways: physical and cognitive disengagement. Responses suggest that peer interactions are an important component of writing to disseminate research. However, they suggested that institutions could help. This study makes the case for writing-oriented peer relationships, described in this article as ‘peer-formativity’. These findings have implications for how institutions manage research policy and associated systems of regulation.