Book review by ASU president incites conflict

Articles in the prestigious science journal Nature are supposed to prompt high-minded debates that expand understanding of our world.

However, a spat that erupted from Arizona State University President Michael Crow’s review of a new book on university research has fallen far short of that lofty mark.

Crow accuses the book’s author, Daniel Greenberg, of taking “cheap shots” against Crow and the university in retaliation for a lukewarm review.

Greenberg, a respected science policy journalist, accuses Crow of speed reading “Science for Sale: The perils, rewards, and delusions of campus capitalism.” As a result, Greenberg said, Crow misrepresented the book’s main argument.

“He is free in writing a book review to express any opinion,” Greenberg told the Tribune this week. “He is not free to distort what’s in the book.”

In a response letter, Greenberg theorized that Crow doesn’t have time to both review books and raise ASU’s “relatively low academic standing.”

Crow bristled at that statement.

“Rather than attack the points of my review, he just said, 'Well, the guy didn’t understand what I was saying; he must not have read it,’” Crow said. “I read the book, Dan. Sorry, buddy.”

Greenberg’s book details how universities pay for research. In particular, “Science for Sale” examines how the group writing the checks impacts the scope of research throughout higher education.

Crow wrote in his review that Greenberg laments that university research is now driven primarily by funding, rather than the researchers’ curiosity. But Crow disputed the idea that this is a new phenomenon.

“Unfortunately, science past did not really exist in the way he spends so much time describing in the book,” Crow writes in his review, which was published in September.

Crow is a leading proponent of the movement to increase ties between academia and private industry. ASU, like dozens of other universities, is trying to help its researchers spin their work into new companies, or to sell the research to companies that can move it into the marketplace.

Greenberg questions whether Crow is impartial enough to judge the book fairly. But, more importantly, the author said Crow confused comments made by one scientist interviewed in the book as Greenberg’s own position.

Greenberg contends that his book also disputes that scientist’s argument against private industry funding for university research.

Crow used somewhat gentle language when criticizing “Science for Sale.”

The review describes the book as “intriguing,” the supporting evidence as “substantial and meaningful” and Greenberg as “the premier journalist of science policy.”

The author’s rebuttal was less cordial.

“It irritated him so much,” Crow said, “that he took two cheap shots back.”

Greenberg said he didn’t intend for his comments to criticize ASU and its president. He is simply stating facts supported by U.S. News & World Report’s university rankings.

The magazine labeled ASU a third-tier school until this year.

“As far as Arizona State University goes, I think it is generally recognized that in the league it’s trying to play in, it has a relatively low academic standing,” Greenberg said. “It just shows up in the numbers.”