The golden age of social science.

Social science is entering a golden age, marked by the confluence of explosive growth in new data and analytic methods, interdisciplinary approaches, and a recognition that these ingredients are necessary to solve the more challenging problems facing our world. We discuss how developing a "lingua franca" can encourage more interdisciplinary research, providing two case studies (social networks and behavioral economics) to illustrate this theme. Several exemplar studies from the past 12 y are also provided. We conclude by addressing the challenges that accompany these positive trends, such as career incentives and the search for unifying frameworks, and associated best practices that can be employed in response.

Education for a biobased economy: Integrating life and social sciences in flexible short courses accessible from different backgrounds.

To achieve ambitious 21st-century goals and deal with high-level complexity, a bio-based economy is required to cross the boundaries of a single sector and integrate tools, language and knowledge drawn from different disciplines and sub-disciplines. The present contribution highlights how life scientists, social scientists, policymakers and industrial stakeholders should work together to make this technological reversal real and feasible. Importantly, going beyond theoretical and methodological integration, the paper underlines the necessity of developing a new and more flexible educational framework that might facilitate interdisciplinary combination. Specifically, the experience of the summer school "Towards a bio-based economy: science, innovation, economics, education" organized by the University of Milano Bicocca in collaboration with Chalmers University is described. The results reveal the need for high-level education programs likely to promote and guide society towards bio-based innovation.

Publication rates from biomedical and behavioral and social science R01s funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Prior research has shown a serious lack of research transparency resulting from the failure to publish study results in a timely manner. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has increased its use of publication rate and time to publication as metrics for grant productivity. In this study, we analyze the publications associated with all R01 and U01 grants funded from 2008 through 2014, providing sufficient time for these grants to publish their findings, and identify predictors of time to publication based on a number of variables, including if a grant was coded as a behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) grant or not. Overall, 2.4% of the 27,016 R01 and U01 grants did not have a publication associated with the grant within 60 months of the project start date, and this rate of zero publications was higher for BSSR grants (4.6%) than for non-BSSR grants (1.9%). Mean time in months to first publication was 15.2 months, longer for BSSR grants (22.4 months) than non-BSSR grants (13.6 months). Survival curves showed a more rapid reduction of risk to publish from non-BSSR vs BSSR grants. Cox regression models showed that human research (vs. animal, neither, or both) and clinical trials research (vs. not) are the strongest predictors of time to publication and failure to publish, but even after accounting for these and other predictors, BSSR grants continued to show longer times to first publication and greater risk of no publications than non-BSSR grants. These findings indicate that even with liberal criteria for publication (any publication associated with a grant), a small percentage of R01 and U01 grantees fail to publish in a timely manner, and that a number of factors, including human research, clinical trial research, child research, not being an early stage investigator, and conducting behavioral and social sciences research increase the risk of time to first publication.

The Emerging Social Science Literature on Health Technology Assessment: A Narrative Review.

BACKGROUND: Social scientists have paid increasing attention to health technology assessment (HTA). This paper provides an overview of existing social scientific literature on HTA, with a focus on sociology and political science and their subfields. METHODS: Narrative review of key pieces in English. RESULTS: Three broad themes recur in the emerging social science literature on HTA: the drivers of the establishment and concrete institutional designs of HTA bodies; the effects of institutionalized HTA on pricing and reimbursement systems and the broader society; and the social and political influences on HTA decisions. CONCLUSION: Social scientists bring a focus on institutions and social actors involved in HTA, using primarily small-N research designs and qualitative methods. They provide valuable critical perspectives on HTA, at times challenging its otherwise unquestioned assumptions. However, they often leave aside questions important to the HTA practitioner community, including the role of culture and values. Closer collaboration could be beneficial to tackle new relevant questions pertaining to HTA.

Importance of HIV/AIDS-Related Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the NIH and Beyond.

OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT: Key topics discussed in this article were previously presented at the Center for AIDS Research Social and Behavioral Sciences Network's 12th National Scientific Meeting in August 2018. This article highlights the importance of behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. APPROACH: NIH has made significant investments in HIV/AIDS-related BSSR. These investments support the development of effective, evidence-based sociobehavioral HIV prevention, treatment, and care strategies. DISCUSSION: The implementation and use of evidence-based sociobehavioral approaches in combination with biomedical strategies provide the availability of multiple tools to end the HIV epidemic in the United Sates and the pandemic globally. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: BSSR-related opportunities to mitigate the persistent challenges HIV/AIDS presents include, but are not limited to, further incorporating BSSR into HIV vaccine and cure research; improving interventions that address stigma and the social determinants of health that perpetuate HIV transmission within key populations; and conducting implementation science research that shapes national and international policies impacting HIV prevention, treatment, and care.

NIH behavioral and social sciences research support: 1980-2016.

The history of behavioral and social science research funding at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) between 1980 and 2016 is reviewed. Noncommunicable diseases are now the primary cause of death worldwide and most are strongly linked to behavior. Developed under the prevailing zeitgeist of the biomedical model, behavioral and social science has often been underfunded at NIH. In 1990, the Senate Appropriations Committee, recognizing that behavior may contribute to about half of all premature deaths, recommended that funding for behavioral and social sciences research should be about 10% of the NIH budget. NIH and American Psychological Association efforts to address this goal are described. Data from several sources suggest that this goal has never been realized. Patterns of federal funding for research may have a significant influence on scientific disciplines. Fields of study that have received more extramural funding are associated with greater growth in faculty and higher faculty salaries. A renewed effort to increase the federal investment in behavioral and social sciences research is necessary. (PsycINFO Database Record

Towards Multidisciplinary HIV-Cure Research: Integrating Social Science with Biomedical Research.

The quest for a cure for HIV remains a timely and key challenge for the HIV research community. Despite significant scientific advances, current HIV therapy regimens do not completely eliminate the negative impact of HIV on the immune system; and the economic impact of treating all people infected with HIV globally, for the duration of their lifetimes, presents significant challenges. This article discusses, from a multidisciplinary approach, critical social, behavioral, ethical, and economic issues permeating the HIV-cure research agenda. As part of a search for an HIV cure, both the perspective of patients/participants and clinical researchers should be taken into account. In addition, continued efforts should be made to involve and educate the broader community.

Gender contributes to personal research funding success in The Netherlands.

We examined the application and review materials of three calls (n=2,823) of a prestigious grant for personal research funding in a national full population of early career scientists awarded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Results showed evidence of gender bias in application evaluations and success rates, as well as in language use in instructions and evaluation sheets. Male applicants received significantly more competitive "quality of researcher" evaluations (but not "quality of proposal" evaluations) and had significantly higher application success rates than female applicants. Gender disparities were most prevalent in scientific disciplines with the highest number of applications and with equal gender distribution among the applicants (i.e., life sciences and social sciences). Moreover, content analyses of the instructional and evaluation materials revealed the use of gendered language favoring male applicants. Overall, our data reveal a 4% "loss" of women during the grant review procedure, and illustrate the perpetuation of the funding gap, which contributes to the underrepresentation of women in academia.

Ciencias sociales, movimientos sociales y políticas públicas / Social sciences, social movements and public policies

Las ciencias sociales contextualizan el estudio de los movimientos sociales, considerando que aportan y fundamentan teorías y métodos sociales que permiten observar los procesosde configuración política, histórica y territorial de estos movimientos. En este contexto es apropiado recorrer el ámbito de las disciplinas, de la teoría social y del método para explicarlos elementos de contacto teórico y disciplinar de las ciencias sociales con los movimientos sociales, entendidos como objetos de estudio.

The social sciences contextualize the study of the social movements, considering that they provide and underlie theories and social methods that allow to observe the political,historical, and territorial configuration processes of such movements. In this context, it is appropriate to explore the scope of disciplines, the social theory, and the method in order to explain the theoretical contact elements and discipline of the social sciences along with the social movements, which are understood as objects of study.