The Influence of Academic Expertise on Peer and Media Attention: the Roles of Specialist and Generalist

This study aims to explore how the tension between specialist and generalist helps to explain which academics attract attention from peer and media audiences. On the one hand, specialists, who have depth knowledge in specific domains can be recognized by the audiences and receive more attention. On the other hand, generalists, who have knowledge in a wide and various areas, are likely to attract more attention. We also examine the role of research excellence on the attention of academics. Analysing the peer and media attention of academics in a major research-intensive university, this study seeks to find the effect of specialist and generalist in explaining different audience attention of academics.