[friendzis]

Yes, science and academia are not the same, but this distinction is largely meaningless precisely because as you yourself say "the social process of science is more complicated" as in science does not happen in a vacuum. Science is largely by product of academia, if you will.

While the theoretical scientific method itself may be a way to get to actual truth, the published science - knowledge that will be known, preserved and built upon - is a result of academic process, not some ultimate truth-seeking. In a practical sense science is the social process of science even if there is innate ontological difference.