The Structure of Distributed Scientific Research Teams Affects Collaboration and Research Output

  • Sarah Gehlert, PhD Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO
  • Jung Ae Lee, PhD Agriculture Statistics Lab, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR;
  • Jeff Gill, PhD Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO
  • Graham Colditz, MD Agriculture Statistics Lab, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
  • Ruth Patterson, PhD Moores Cancer Center, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA
  • Kathryn Schmitz, PhD Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
  • Linda Nebeling, PhD, RD National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD
  • Frank Hu, MD Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston MA
  • Dale McLerran Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
  • Diana Lowry, MPH Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
  • the TREC Collaboration and Outcomes Working Group
  • Mark Thornquist, PhD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22545/2017/00083
Keywords: cancer, research, transdisciplinarity, team science, network models

Abstract

To understand how the nature of scientific collaboration between individuals and sites in  team-based  research  initiatives  affect collaboration and research output, we examined four waves of prospective survey data to measure collaboration across investigators, disciplines, and sites to measure structural determinants of research success. 116 investigators in the five sites of the NIH-funded U54 Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC) initiative were surveyed about their research ties with a 2011 baseline measure and followed by three additional iterations  and  augmented  by  bibliometric  data. Social network analysis describes the changing structure of contact and cooperation. We found that the network structure of a team science project affects the nature and rate of publications, implying that funded projects vary in research output based on how investigators interact with each other and that the design of scientific research projects affects research output by determining levels of contact between actual and potential collaborators.

Published
2017-01-01
How to Cite
Gehlert, PhD, S., Lee, PhD, J. A., Gill, PhD, J., Colditz, MD, G., Patterson, PhD, R., Schmitz, PhD, K., Nebeling, PhD, RD, L., Hu, MD, F., McLerran, D., Lowry, MPH, D., the TREC Collaboration and Outcomes Working Group, & Thornquist, PhD, M. (2017). The Structure of Distributed Scientific Research Teams Affects Collaboration and Research Output. Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science, 8. https://doi.org/10.22545/2017/00083
Issue
Vol 8 (2017)
Section
Articles