Background: Many different concepts have been invoked in the literature to describe coordination between scientific and policy practices. However, a framework to understand different types of this boundary management is lacking, which allows 'linear' models and 'gap' metaphors to persist. Objectives: To operationalise the multidimensional…

Researchers' notions of research quality depend on their field of research. Previous studies have shown that field-specific assessment criteria exist but could explain neither why these specific criteria and not others exist, nor how criteria are used in specific assessment situations. To give initial answers to these questions, formal assessment…

E-science, or networked, collaborative and multidisciplinary scientific research on a shared e-infrastructure using computational tools, methods and applications, has also brought about new networked organizational forms in the transition of higher education towards the entrepreneurial academy. While the under-representation of women in ICTs is…

The need to specifically mentor graduate and medical students performing biomedical and biobehavioral research in communication skills is increasingly being highlighted to increase intention to pursue academic research careers, including physician-scientist careers. This study used data collected from 354 research faculty in 33 states across the…

Research librarians should be literate in locating government resources at both federal and state levels. Although assistance with policy research may not be as frequently requested as other subjects, librarians need to be knowledgeable in this subject area. Policy resources produced by federal and state legislative and executive agencies can be…

Major changes in the governance of higher education and the public sciences have taken place over the past 40 or so years in many OECD countries. These have affected the nature of authority relationships governing research priorities and the evaluation of results. In particular, the increasing exogeneity, formalisation and substantive nature of…

To explore the reasons for the dearth of minorities in Ph.D.-level biomedical research and identify opportunities to increase minority participation, we surveyed high-achieving alumni of an undergraduate biology enrichment program for underrepresented minorities. Respondents were asked to describe their career paths and to reflect on the…

Interdisciplinary research is being promoted in many quarters as the way forward, but "research islands" still persist. Taking computer-assisted learning (CAL) within health sciences as a case in point, this paper describes a detailed study of the references to source material within papers published in general medical, specific nursing and…

Driven by the needs of college/university researchers and guided by a blue-ribbon advisory panel chaired by Daniel E. Atkins, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has initiated a broad, multi-directorate activity to create modern cyberinfrastructure and to apply it to transforming the effectiveness of the scientific research enterprise in higher…

Discusses three major reasons why more women do not pursue research positions in science and technology: (1) lack of awareness of female role models; (2) social rejection in graduate schools and sexual pressures on the job; and (3) lack of technological literacy. Makes recommendations to solve these problems. (JOW)

Discusses a National Academy of Science forum at which a group of outstanding young researchers in astronomy, molecular and developmental biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, atmospheric science, and materials science met for three days of formal presentations and informal conversations. Provides a short synopsis of major speakers. (MVL)

Certain representations of basic scientific knowledge can be coupled with traditional micro-economic analysis to provide an analysis of rational research planning or agenda setting in basic science. Research planning is conceived of as a resource allocation decision in which resources are being allocated to activities directed toward the solution…

This report is based on a survey of the National Science Foundation's Industrial Panel on Science and Technology. The panel comes from essentially all major types of industry involved in research and development (R&D) and covers a wide range of firms and cooperations. The findings of the survey show that almost one-half of those who responded…

A study evaluated several characteristics of authors published for the first time in two basic science research journals: "Brain Research," a well-established journal founded in 1966 (the first of its type); and "Brain Research Bulletin," a more recent journal founded in 1976. For the weekly "Brain Research," new…

The long-forgotten debate of 1929-31 between T. L. Kelley and W. H. Kilpatrick is reviewed with the aim of reviving the crucial, but dormant, issue of the competence of quantitative empirical research to answer educational questions. They debated the need to supplement scientific method with a philosophical approach sensitive to needs, impulses,…