The correlates of consultation: American academics in “the real world”

More than one-third of American academics perform consulting services for fees. Academics who consult have been criticized by persons who believe that they become less effective members of the academy, and that their consulting activity is generally detrimental to the health of the academic community. This paper begins to address that issue by analyzing data collected through a sample survey of American college and university teachers. The extent to which American academics consult, the types of consulting in which they are engaged, and the characteristics of the academics who consult are described. The paid consultant tends to be an academic who is active in a variety of areas. He is a person who publishes more books and articles, who teaches graduate students rather than undergraduate students, and who is both younger and higher in rank than his colleagues.Mr. Marver is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Patton is an assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Illinois, Urbana.