AbstractIt is instructive to think of UK academic science as in interlocking system of ‘markets’, where ‘vendors’ offer ‘commodities’ to ‘customers’ in return for ‘currencies’. In the institutional market, higher education institutions compete commercially as research contractors. Money is also the effective currency in the markets in projects, academic jobs and intellectual property rights. But these are linked with the metaphorical reputational and researchclaimsmarkets where academics compete fiercely for intangible ‘recognition’.Some typical market imperfections, such as research customer monopsony, arbitrary variations of project pricing, inadequate information on quality, and rigidities of staffing, could be reduced by systematic reform. But some current structural problems are deep‐seated. For example, damaging conflict between institutional and individual interests is being generated by the introduction of commercial ‘market forces’ into the traditional academic marketplace, where competition was always by quality, not by price, and where individuals could enter and l