This paper is a review of 40 years of the journal R&D Management.

What is it about?

Academic journals are a meeting place, so to speak, and when R&D Management began life it was intended to be a meeting place for those practicing the art of management in firms and those reflecting on it, who worked in universities and colleges. What I have been able to show by looking at the 40 year history of the journal is that R&D Management has become gradually less of a place for practitioner reflection and more a place where academics talk to each other, despite the relevance of their discussions to practice. Other journals in the field of management of technology (MOT) have also taken this route, but not all have, and some find a balance between the practitioner and academic perspectives.

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Why is it important?

The UK Research Assessment Exercise - now the Excellence Framework - has been a powerful influence upon this journal's development and has led, I would argue, to an increasing theoretical engagement. Not all journals in the field of management of technology have gone down this route but many have. The analysis I have conducted continues to ask the question that Derrick Ball and I pursued in earlier work - where are the managers and how are their needs being addressed by academics?

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