This article highlights the findings from two studies about faculty productivity in the United States that were discussed at the American Educational Research Association's annual conference in San Diego this month. The first paper, titled "International Faculty: Experiences of Academic Life and Productivity in U.S. Universities," found…

Security restrictions imposed since 2001 have unnecessarily constrained university researchers, and those controls should be loosened in order to enhance the nation's economic and strategic competitiveness, says a report issued by the National Research Council of the National Academies. The report's authors, a committee of high-ranking officials…

Hundreds of researchers around the world are rushing to produce new ceramic materials that lose all resistance to electricity, causing a volume of publications that is pressing the limits of communication, causing innovation in the procedures of scientific publication, and creating concern about credit for discoveries. (MSE)

The excitement and intense competition surrounding the search for new applications of superconductors resembles the entrepreneurial atmosphere of the early 1970s, when faculty were launching profitable companies based on developments in biotechnology and semiconductors. (MSE)

Conflict over the authorship of scientific research into schizophrenia in an international collaboration is discussed. Issues of access to research data and laboratory samples, competition for research results, and attribution of scholarship are considered. (MSE)

As research equipment becomes more sophisticated and expensive, and as the number of scientists and engineers choosing academic careers shrinks, the start-up costs for recruiting researchers are skyrocketing. The cost typically includes money to provide equipment, facilities, and support needed to set up laboratories and begin research. (MLW)

Twelve proposed priorities, drafted by the Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, will dictate the aims and lines of inquiry of research centers whose contracts will expire next year. The new competition is especially large because the contracts for 14 of the 21 present centers expire. (MLW)

Intense competition for federal research funds in some areas of science is generating more narrow research training, conflict between research and teaching responsibilities, and alienation and frustration among young scientists, who must scramble for tenuous research positions that lead nowhere. (MSE)