We explore what determines whether academics publicly reveal their commercial activities. Such revealing is important because it influences other academics in their commercial engagement and, as such, represents a structural driver of how impact is generated from science. We hypothesise that revealing is informed by individuals’ academic standing and posit an inverted U-shape: Academics at both the lower and the higher end of the scientific hierarchy are less inclined to reveal their commercial activities. This is the result of two countervailing effects. First, academics with lower academic standing may be concerned that commercial activities affect their acceptance within academia (membership anxiety effect). Second, academics with higher standing may be concerned that displaying commercial activities hampers their ability to perform as role models (professional accountability effect). We find support using unique data from 600 academics at a large UK research university. We further find that these effects are exacerbated for academics with a basic science profile and female academics. Our findings imply that the perceived need to present a pure academic profile may prevent some academics from revealing their commercial engagement, with implications for the acceptability and spread of these activities often seen as vehicles for science impact.
