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Introduction: Federal grant funding to support infrastructure development of translational biomedical research centers is a form of public health intervention. Establishing rigorous methods for measuring center success and outcomes is essential to justify continued funding. Methods: Bibliometric data compiled from a 5-year funding cycle of neurodegeneration and translational neuroscience research center were analyzed using the package bibliometrix for open-source software R and the NIH-developed research tool iCite. Results: The research team and their collaborators (n = 485) produced 157 grant-citing publications from 2015-2020. The science was produced by small research teams clustered around three main communities of topics: Alzheimer's Disease, brain imaging, and neuropsychological testing in the elderly. Using the relative citation ratio, the publications produced by the research team were found to be influential when compared to other R01-funded publications. Conclusion: Recent developments in bibliometric analysis expand beyond traditional measurement capabilities to better understand the characteristics, outcomes, and influences of research teams. These findings can be used to inform researchers and institutions about research team composition, productivity, and success. Measures of research influence may be used to justify return on investment to funders.
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INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to describe collaborative research in neuroscience within the context of the Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience (CNTN), a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence supported by the National Institute of General Medical Science. Drawing upon research on the science of team science, this study investigated the way that interactions around research emerged over the course of establishing a new research center. The objectives were to document changes in research activity and describe how human research support infrastructure functioned to support the production of science. METHODS: Social network analyses were used to model coauthorship relationships based on publication histories from baseline (2014) through the current grant year (2017) for key personnel (n = 12), as well as survey data on collaborative engagement among CNTN members (n = 59). RESULTS: Exponential random graph models indicated that over time, CNTN members were increasingly likely to form coauthorship relationships. Community detection algorithms and brokerage analyses suggested that the CNTN was functioning as intended to support scientific development. DISCUSSION: Assessment of team science efforts is critical to evaluating and developing appropriate support structures that facilitate successful team science efforts in translational neuroscience.
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The purpose of this work is to provide an overview of complex systems research for educational psychologists. We outline a philosophically and theoretically sourced definition of complex systems research organized around complex, dynamic, and emergent ontological characteristics that is useful and appropriate for educational psychology. A complex systems approach is positioned as a means to align underexplored elements of existing theory with appropriate interaction dominant theoretical models, research methods, and equation-based analytic techniques. We conclude with a brief discussion of several foundational topics for complex systems research in educational psychology.
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The purpose of this theory-to-practice paper is to discuss complex systems research needs within engineering education. We provide a comprehensive definition of complex systems educational research (Hilpert & Marchand, under review; Jacobson et al., 2016) and an overview of methods specific to the approach (Hollenstein, 2013; Koopsman & Stavalomsis, 2016; Strogatz, 1994). After this, we delineate a research-based framework that can be used to develop and conduct complex systems research and evaluation. We identify two areas within the field of engineering education where complex systems research can be useful: 1) educational research focused on student interaction and cognition and 2) assessment and evaluation of collaboratives such as grant funded projects and communication/ publication networks. We discuss existing literature in these spaces, and then outline the critical research needs for engineering education. We address each of these critical needs with an eye on theory as well as methodological and analytic techniques that can be used to design and conduct complex systems research and evaluation in engineering education settings and contexts. The result is a set of specific guidelines that researchers can use to move complex systems research forward in engineering education. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number NSF DUE #1245018 and partial support was also provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Grant No. P20GM109025.
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Professor Willy Lens has provided inspiration through his scholarship and mentorship for research in Future Time Perspective (FTP) theory. The traditional conceptualization of FTP consists of hierarchically organized psychological constructs that define individual differences in perceptions of the future across varying levels of specificity. The levels of specificity create a nested variable structure that is often described in a top-down fashion, from domain-general to context-specific. In the current study, relations among measures of connectedness, an FTP construct regarding concern for and planfulness about the future, are examined at three levels of specificity: domain-general, domain-specific, and context-specific. We examine interactions between domain-specific and domain-general levels of FTP. A sample of 3962 undergraduate engineering majors (mean age 20) from a large research university in the southwestern United States of America were surveyed. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine the hypothesis that aggregate classroom levels of student knowledge building moderate relations in the nested connectedness variable structure. At the student level of analysis measures of students' domain-general, domain-specific, and context-specific connectedness were significantly and positively related. At the classroom level of analysis, results indicated that higher levels of aggregate classroom knowledge building shifted the direction of relations suggesting that in more engaging classroom contexts perceived value of learning for reaching a future goal may shape how students plan for future careers (domain-specific FTP). Implications for FTP theory are discussed.
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BACKGROUND: Research has shown that both achievement goal theory and self-determination theory (SDT) are quite useful in explaining student motivation and success in academic contexts. However, little is known about how the two theories relate to each other. AIM: The current research used SDT as a framework to understand why students enter classes with particular achievement goal profiles, and also, how those profiles may change over time. SAMPLE: One hundred and eighty-four undergraduate preservice teachers in a required domain course agreed to participate in the study. METHOD: Data were collected at three time points during the semester, and both path modelling and multi-level longitudinal modelling techniques were used. RESULTS: Path modelling techniques with 169 students, results indicated that students' autonomy and relatedness need satisfaction in life predict their initial self-determined class motivation, which in turn predicts initial mastery-approach and -avoidance goals. Multi-level longitudinal modelling with 108 students found that perceived teacher autonomy support buffered against the general decline in students' mastery-approach goals over the course of the semester. CONCLUSIONS: Data provide a promising integration of SDT and achievement goal theory, posing a host of potentially fruitful future research questions regarding goal adoption and trajectories.
