Fictionalizing Cases versus Protecting the Identity of Participants in Academic Publishing [Abstract]

Abstract

In higher education governance and policy, case studies of university as organizations are a conventional approach of doing research. When research is completed and articles and conference presentations are in the process of disseminating research findings, sometimes researchers choose to name the organizations that they studied. But often times, researchers choose not to disclose the actual names of the organizations they have researched. In the latter case, universities in research outputs are typically named by some labels or they are given fictional titles. In any case, whether the researchers disclose the name of the university or not, organizations need to be described since they each in a case study would constitute a case.