Why Industry Researchers Should Publish Their Work

Although patenting inventions is commonplace in industry, it is equally important to publish industrial research for a variety of reasons. In fact, systematic literature reviews have consistently demonstrated that businesses publish many of their results in scientific journals. A recent report suggests that publicly traded firms in the United States produce roughly 30,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications every year. Although patenting provides legal protection to corporate inventions, businesses still prefer publishing some of their results in peer-reviewed journals. Today’s blog post outlines the key benefits of publishing industry research in peer-reviewed open access journals.

Historical Overview

During the early twentieth century, businesses from across the United States began investing heavily in science. Publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals predominantly occurred in areas such as organic chemistry, polymers, and electrical engineering. The publishing authors belonged to top corporate players such as AT&T Bell Labs, DuPont, and Kodak. These firms published significantly more than their university counterparts at the time. Gradually, research universities began catching up with corporate firms in the 1950s and 1960s. Businesses continue to patent and publish today, although the trends may vary by region and research area. However, it is essential to note that in certain industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, publishing the results of clinical trials is a regulatory requirement.

Why Publish Industry Research?

Industry research is mostly geared towards increasing revenue through cutting-edge innovations. However, it would be myopic to say that every single piece of industry research must culminate in a commercial product or service. Adopting such a skewed policy that only prioritizes revenue generation can adversely impact exploratory research. Moreover, such a narrow approach may prevent industry researchers from considering a broader perspective. Let us now explore some of the other distinct benefits of publishing industry research.

Getting Timely Feedback

Not all the bright minds conducting pioneering research in a particular field of study (be it academic or industrial) work in the same corporate firm or university. However, this limitation can be overcome by publishing. For instance, when industry researchers stumble upon a significant hurdle and acknowledge it in their publication, their peers from across the globe can come to their rescue either during peer review or through post-publication networking (e.g., at highly specialized conferences). This timely sharing of knowledge in the form of constructive feedback can save companies millions of dollars.

Publishing industry research also sparks curiosity among fellow researchers, which, in the long run, benefits the firm by catalyzing the production of follow-on knowledge that could potentially address certain key challenges it faces.

Attracting Quality Stakeholders

Corporate firms that publish at least some of their cutting-edge research in peer-reviewed scientific journals increase their statistical odds of attracting the right kind of employees, investors, and other key stakeholders. Publishing in open access peer-reviewed journals gives a further boost to outreach and onboarding, as prospective employees, investors, and others can easily assess the type of research being conducted by the corporate research unit(s).

Building Reputation

When corporate research gets published in peer-reviewed scientific journals that have a wide global reach, it helps the business establish a brand identity. This type of brand building works really well on professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn, as the most serious researchers often engage with content shared on these and other similar platforms. In addition, companies can include links to published scientific articles in white papers, promotional materials, and documents drafted for investor meetings, giving significant credibility to their research output. All of these activities directly contribute to brand building across B2B, B2C, and other relevant business models.

Publishing Before Patenting

It is common knowledge that public disclosure via journal publication before patenting can render an invention unpatentable. Nevertheless, companies still publish research related to a future patent, but they do it carefully without disclosing the actual invention. Such publishing is also known as “pre-emptive” or “defensive” publishing. The biggest advantage of such publishing is that it creates an openly accessible record of prior art, which then prevents competitors from filing patents based on similar or incremental ideas.

Why Open Access?

Publishing in open access peer-reviewed scientific journals is of great benefit to authors from both academia and industry. To learn more, click here.

Summary

Businesses can derive significant benefits by publishing their research in peer-reviewed open access journals. Many Forbes-listed companies have favorable in-house policies on scientific publishing. The most notable benefits include gaining deep insights, getting authentic community feedback, attracting the right type of stakeholders, building brand reputation, and facilitating the process of patenting. In summary, industry researchers have a lot to gain and nothing to lose by regularly publishing at least some of their world-class research in peer-reviewed open access journals.

Key Highlights

Many publicly traded companies regularly publish in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Pre-emptive or defensive publishing often precedes patenting.

Publishing in open access peer-reviewed journals has distinct benefits for businesses.

Quiz for the Curious

A computer hardware company based in San Francisco decides to file a patent for a recent invention at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). However, a Seattle-based research unit belonging to the same company published a paper on a related topic a few months ago in an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Is the invention still patentable?

(A) Yes, provided the public disclosure (scientific publication) does not directly reveal the invention itself.

(B) No, the patent application will get instantly rejected.

(D) None of the above.

Answer: (A)

Key References

Rotolo D, Camerani R, Grassano N, Martin BR: Why do firms publish? A systematic literature review and a conceptual framework. Research Policy. 2022, 51. 10.1016/j.respol.2022.104606

Owens B: What incentives do companies need to publish research? (2025). Accessed: October 29, 2025. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01926-y