This editorial article presents the conceptual approach to researching academics’ societal engagement (ASE) in the cross-country study “Academic Profession in Knowledge Societies (APIKS).” Methodologically, the APIKS survey (large-n) aims for the cross-country comparative study of academics’ work (research, teaching, ASE and (self-governance) of selected country cases (small-n). We define ASE broadly as social co-construction of knowledge (and technology) by academics and partners from outside academia. Conceptually, we amended the analytical framework by Perkmann et al. (Res Policy 42:423–442, 2013), for example, by adding a contextual factors box (e.g., network indicators). For the study of ASE, in a collaborative effort, we evaluated ASE-activities or types of ASE-activities and selected 17 ASE-activities, which are applicable in varying national higher education and sciences contexts. We find that concrete ASE-practices are strongly connected to the national higher education and science traditions of the respective countries and disciplinary cultures. The technical and commercial dimension of ASE is dominantly performed in STEM-fields, and knowledge dissemination activities and participation in external science organizations are more common in HSS-fields. We consider the APIKS study of ASE to be a further step toward establishing international knowledge about ASE-activities for cross-country comparison.

这篇社论文章介绍了越野研究“知识社会的学术职业（APIKS）”中研究学者的社会参与（ASE）的概念方法。从方法上讲，APIKS调查（大-n）旨在对选定国家案例（小-n案例）的学者的工作（研究，教学，ASE和（自治））进行跨国比较研究。）。我们将ASE广义上定义为学术界和外部学术界的合作伙伴对知识（和技术）的社会共建。从概念上讲，我们修改了Perkmann等人的分析框架。（例如，Res Policy 42：423-442，2013年），例如，添加一个上下文因素框（例如，网络指标）。对于ASE的研究，我们进行了合作，评估了ASE活动或ASE活动的类型，并选择了17种ASE活动，这些活动适用于不同的国家高等教育和科学领域。我们发现，具体的ASE做法与各自国家的国家高等教育和科学传统以及学科文化紧密相关。ASE的技术和商业规模主要在STEM领域中进行，在HSS领域，知识传播活动和外部科学组织的参与更为普遍。我们认为APIASE对ASE的研究是朝着建立有关ASE活动的国际知识进行跨国比较迈出的又一步。