Dear Danilo,

You ask for the difference between a "researching professional" and a "professional researcher".

What follows is a short answer to your question. As a see it, a researching professional is a professional, a secondary teacher, for example, that makes research because it likes or wants to make it, may be for pleasure or to know better the unknown. In other words, the first mission of a researching professional is not to perform research, but to be, say, a good professional, for example, a good  or even excellent teacher, lawyer, or physician in his/her area of expertise. We all know of excellent professionals (e.g., mechanics, lawyers) without having performed formal research. I say formal research, because one's professional practice may be considered in itself as a permanent action-oriented research. It is not a mere coincidence that professionals generally increase their professional competence as time goes by, that is, while they continue to do their job as professionals.

In contrast to this, professional researchers are individuals whose main mission, responsibility, and profession is just to perform research, and are paid to make it. For example, at Portuguese universities there are individuals that having no teaching just to have time enough to perform research.

As professors (e.g., assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors) at the college/university level need to publish to be promoted or earn more ( "the publish or perish policy") they are, say, in the between, that is, they are to some extent researching professionals and also professional researchers.

I hope I have got your question and that this helps.

Best regards,

Orlando

Hi, Danilo,

In general, I am in agreement with Orlando's answer; however, I would like to speak to the "in between" segment he mentions - higher education faculty. From my perspective, higher education faculty forget that their primary mission is to educate the students when they self-identify as "professional researchers."

The model that I prefer is the "scholar-practitioner" in which the research role is used as a foundation upon which meaningful student-faculty engagement takes place. There is much in the scholar-practitioner framework that replicates the "researching professional" idea, but I like the inclusion of "practitioner" a great deal. It reminds me that my research is more than just a side interest or a sort of hobby. It is integral to the practitioner (i.e., educator) role that is my life's work.