From publishing to patenting: do productive scientists turn into academic inventors?

The paper contributes to ongoing debate on the relationship between publishing and patenting in university. By applying event history analysis to patent and publication data for a sample of Italian academic scientists, we show that more productive scientists are more likely to become academic inventors, to no detriment of their orientation towards basic research. Research co-operation with industry is a useful predictor of patenting, when IPRs are owned by business companies.