Competition For Research Funding Research Articles

Systemic Explanations of Scientific Misconduct: Provoked by Spectacular Cases of Norm Violation?

In the past two decades, individual explanations of scientific misconduct (‘bad apples’) have increasingly given way to systemic explanations (‘bad systems’). Where did this interest in systemic factors (publication pressure, competition for research funding) come from? Given that research ethicists often present their interventions as responses to scientific misconduct, this article tests the hypothesis that these systemic explanations were triggered by high-visibility cases of scientific norm violation. It does so by examining why Dutch scientists in 2011 explained Diederik Stapel’s grand-scale data fabrication largely in systemic terms, whereas only fifteen years earlier, in the René Diekstra affair (1996), such explanations had been close to absent. Drawing on a wealth of historical sources, the article suggests that cases like Stapel’s as such do not explain why early 21st-century commentators exchanged individual explanations for systemic ones. Only against the background of an existing discourse of criticism of the science system, developed in the 1990s and 2000s in response to rapidly increasing competition for research funding, could the Stapel affair achieve notoriety as an example of how systemic factors provoke bad conduct.

Evaluating the Quality of Dutch Academic Legal Publications: Results from a Survey

In the Netherlands, law as an academic discipline seems to be moving from the humanities towards the social sciences. This transition has an impact on how the quality of legal research is perceived and assessed. Legal scholars appear to have different epistemic and strategic agendas with regard to what counts as an academic or professional publication, whether law journals and legal publishers should opt for peer review or the use of metrics to evaluate the quality of legal research, and what the purpose of research evaluation by law schools should be. Behind this are long-term developments that have an impact on legal scholarship, such as a movement from national-oriented research towards a more European and international focus, a shift in focus from monodisciplinarity to multi- and interdisciplinarity in legal research, and a potential shift from financing legal research via lump sum budgeting towards more competition for research funding. These developments are important for the identity of Dutch academic legal research. This is the reason why we undertook a survey among Dutch legal scholars in order to ask them how they feel about the quality of research in general and publications in particular, as well as how this quality should be valued and assessed.

Clinician-Investigator Training and the Need to Pilot New Approaches to Recruiting and Retaining This Workforce.

Clinician–investigators, also called physician–scientists, offer critical knowledge and perspectives that benefit research on basic science mechanisms, improved diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, population and outcomes medicine, health policy, and health services, yet few clinically trained health professionals pursue a research career. Sustaining this workforce requires attention to the unique challenges faced by investigators who must achieve clinical and research competence during training and their careers. These challenges include the duration of required clinical training, limited or discontinuous research opportunities, high levels of educational debt, balancing the dual obligations and rewards of clinical care and research, competition for research funding, and the need for leadership development after training. Women and individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups comprise a small percentage of this workforce.The authors summarize the recent literature on training for clinician–investigators, emphasizing approaches with encouraging outcomes that warrant broader implementation. Using this overview as background, they convened three workshops at the National Institutes of Health in 2016 to identify and refine key priorities for potential new pilot programs to recruit and retain the clinician–investigator workforce. From these workshops emerged three priorities for future pilot programs: (1) support for research in residency, (2) new research on-ramps for health professionals at multiple career stages, and (3) national networks to diversify and sustain clinician–investigator faculty. Implementation of any pilot program will require coordinated commitment from academic health centers, medical licensing/certification boards, professional societies, and clinician–investigators themselves, in addition to support from the National Institutes of Health.

Teaching at the Bedside. Maximal Impact in Minimal Time.

Academic physicians encounter many demands on their time including patient care, quality and performance requirements, research, and education. In an era when patient volume is prioritized and competition for research funding is intense, there is a risk that medical education will become marginalized. Bedside teaching, a responsibility of academic physicians regardless of professional track, is challenged in particular out of concern that it generates inefficiency, and distractions from direct patient care, and can distort physician-patient relationships. At the same time, the bedside is a powerful location for teaching as learners more easily engage with educational content when they can directly see its practical relevance for patient care. Also, bedside teaching enables patients and family members to engage directly in the educational process. Successful bedside teaching can be aided by consideration of four factors: climate, attention, reasoning, and evaluation. Creating a safe environment for learning and patient care is essential. We recommend that educators set expectations about use of medical jargon and engagement of the patient and family before they enter the patient room with trainees. Keep learners focused by asking relevant questions of all members of the team and by maintaining a collective leadership style. Assess and model clinical reasoning through a hypothesis-driven approach that explores the rationale for clinical decisions. Focused, specific, real-time feedback is essential for the learner to modify behaviors for future patient encounters. Together, these strategies may alleviate challenges associated with bedside teaching and ensure it remains a part of physician practice in academic medicine.

Herding Smart Cats: Applying Export Controls on Intangible Transfers of Technology in UK Universities

Trade controls on software and technology are essential to controls on sensitive goods. But deciding whether the transfer of a particular piece of 'know how' is subject to controls is challenging, particularly when it might be made simply in an email or even, in some cases, face-to-face conversation. These challenges are compounded by decentralized structures, competition for research funds and strong traditions of academic freedom in UK universities. Few of the top twenty-four research universities in the UK have a formal export controls policy in place, underlining the need for renewed efforts1 to develop more, and more practical, guidance for the universities. This article looks at the controls which apply to intangible transfers of technology by UK universities and the challenges in implementing them, and suggests some approaches to achieve compliance in a practical, proportionate way.

Communications Strategy within an Academic Context: A Case Study in Environmental Policy Research

With the expansion of capability of information and communication technologies and the platforms and networks they imply, research and education services have become truly global, both in terms of the resources available to researchers and departments, but also in terms of the potential recipients of research and education services. As a consequence, the roll of communications within Higher Education has altered dramatically within the past decade. Additional incentives, for example in the UK Research Excellence Framework “impact” or increased competition for research funding, stakeholder inclusion or student enrollment, mean that communications are no longer considered an optional extra, but are central to the viability of a successful and sustainable organisation. This paper presents a detailed case study of the communications strategy developed and implemented for the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research (4CMR) 2009-2011.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Medical Research among Students of a Medical College in Southern India

Background: Health research is a low priority area in the developing world, mostly due to inadequate research budgets, increased competition for research funding and financially better rewarding clinical careers. Medical students therefore have a narrow definition of research and what it entails. Although medical graduates worldwide consider academia and research as unattractive career options, evidence suggests that exposure to research activities during medical school leads to interest in the area and greater scientific output. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge regarding medical research among the undergraduate medical students and to analyse their attitudes and practices towards research. Methodology: A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was carried out among the undergraduate medical students of a medical school in southern India. Students present at the time of questionnaire administration during the lecture were recruited to the study. Results: Of the 585 respondents, 87% students felt that research was necessary in medical field and 25% of them expressed familiarity with various study designs. Majority of the students felt that research and clinical practice were related entities and nearly 44% had a positive attitude towards a career in research. While lack of financial returns and/or professional status were identified as the reasons for not pursuing research as a career option, holistic education and updated information were considered as chief motivating factors to undertake research. Internet was counted to be the major source of information regarding medical research. Only 25% of the study population had an exposure to research during their medical course and 9% attempted to publish their research work. One-third of the students were of the opinion that research should be a mandatory component of the medical curriculum; however, only 26% felt they had enough time for the same during the medical course. Conclusion::The study reports a wide gap between knowledge and practices towards research among the medical students. Negative attitude, lack of awareness and indifference to research as a career option are potential roadblocks. Promotion of research culture and research-based learning in the medical curriculum are necessary to address the pressing need for physician-scientists.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Digestive Health Research in Canada

Measurement of the impact and influence of medical⁄scientific journals, and of individual researchers has become more widely practiced in recent decades. This is driven, in part, by the increased availability of data regarding citations of research articles, and by increased competition for research funding. Digestive disease research has been identified as a particularly strong discipline in Canada. The authors collected quantitative data on the impact and influence of Canadian digestive health research. The present study involved an analysis of the research impact (Hirsch factor) and research influence (Influence factor) of 106 digestive health researchers in Canada. Rankings of the top 25 researchers on the basis of the two metrics were dominated by the larger research groups at the University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario), McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), and the Universities of Calgary (Calgary, Alberta) and Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta), but with representation by other research groups at the Universities of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Manitoba), Western Ontario (London, Ontario) and McGill University (Montreal, Quebec). Female and male researchers had similar scores for the two metrics, as did basic scientists versus clinical investigators. Strategic recruitment, particularly of established investigators, can have a major impact on the ranking of research groups. Comparing these metrics over different time frames can provide insights into the vulnerabilities and strengths of research groups.

Competition for public project funding in a small research system: the case of Estonia

The extensive literature that deals with competition for research funding has focused on the mechanisms and outcomes of funding, but has not systematically studied the allocation of funding among research performers across different financing instruments. The analysis of a small research system on the basis of funding volumes disaggregated according to beneficiaries and funding instruments showed a very high and growing degree of market concentration strengthening existing dominant research institutions. The focus of research policy on competitive funding mechanisms has been successful for the purposes of research quality, but has also resulted in disadvantages such as weak options for steering the research and the misalignment of the research system with society's needs.

The Efficacy of Strategy in the Competition for Research Funding in Higher Education

A prestigious reputation is the primary success factor in higher education because it attracts resources necessary to sustain growth. Among research‐intensive universities (RIUs), research performance is a key driver of institutional reputation. Achieving an accelerating rate of growth of research performance is the desired objective of all RIUs which, in turn, is contributing to intensification in the competition for research funds. In competitive environments, the use of strategy is widely used to enhance competitive effectiveness. The question arises as to whether some expressions of strategy are more closely associated with increased research performance than others? This paper provides insight into this question by presenting a model demonstrating that the strategic emphases of individual RIUs in the USA are highly correlated to changes in the shares of federally financed research funding actually realized by the institutions.

Conflicts of Interest with the Health Industry

The physician's commitment to altruism, which puts the patients' interests first and is associated with scientific integrity and the absence of bias when making medical decisions, has traditionally constituted the cornerstone of medical ethics. In recent years, however, a flurry of federal prosecutions, class action lawsuits, and congressional investigations have underlined an increasing collusion between physicians and pharmaceutical and device manufacturers. When profit-seeking behavior overshadows concern for the patients' welfare, major conflicts ensue. In such cases, a conflict of interest may be defined as a set of conditions in which professional medical judgment concerning patients' welfare or the validity of research is unduly influenced by secondary interests. These can be financial, such as competition for research funding, or professional, such as professional retribution. Public anxiety about the interaction between physicians and the health industry has grown as a result of observing the increasing influence of money on the quality of patient care and the research process. The health industry has contributed to the discovery, development, and distribution of new drugs and devices that benefited patients. One offshoot of these activities has been the industry's commitment to medical education. However, the health industry's responsibility is ultimately to shareholders, who expect good financial returns on their investment. There is, obviously, a possibility for conflict between the positive and necessary help that the health industry provides to physicians in their educational and research activities and the requirement for that same industry to produce profits and create profit incentives. The very mechanism for profit incentives may be detrimental to patient welfare and may hamper the physician's ability to keep patients' interests as the primary priority. Americans spend about 200 billion dollars each year on prescription drugs. The industry spends 19 billion dollars per year on physician promotion of industrial products. Additionally, direct marketing to …

What's happening to the new investigator?

Investment in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has paid significant dividends to the American people, as NIH Director Elias Zerhouni noted in his testimony before Congress this spring (1). While the benefits to date have been impressive, the most dramatic and valuable returns on our investment are yet to come. However, a potential stumbling block to our continued success and international leadership is our inability to ensure that a new generation of scientists has the resources needed to carry on the work that has already been started. While scientific opportunities have never been greater and the numbers of grant applications has been rising steadily, success rates for R01 applications from new investigators have dropped to a new low of 16.8% in 2004. If other indicators are used, for example “paylines” (the cutoff score in any one review cycle), then the chance of being funded on any given grant application may be well below 10%. This is an alarming deterrent for any young person considering a career in biomedical research. Prospects for correcting or reversing this situation are shrinking. Inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the flat NIH budgets, and competition among experienced investigators is at an all-time high. Without funding increases in FY2006, conditions will become even worse. It is hard to measure opportunity in science or to assess its change over time. But one indicator that can be quantified is the number of applications for research grants. Applications for NIH Research Project Grants (RPGs) rose from 25,224 in 1995 to 34,710 in 2003, the final year of the five year doubling of the NIH budget (2). In 2004 and 2005, NIH’s budget remained flat while scientific opportunities in biomedicine continued to increase. By 2004 and 2005, the number of RPG applications rose to 43,069, an increase of 24% over a two year period. As a result of “no-growth” budgets and obligations to ongoing projects and programs, however, NIH was able to fund fewer new grants during these two years, and overall success rates fell from 29.9% in 2003 to 22.3% in 2005. Scientific opportunities have continued to expand, but funding opportunities at NIH have not. This situation is especially hard on investigators beginning their research careers. While they are the most critical component of our continued leadership in science and innovation, they are the most vulnerable group when it comes to fluctuations and downturns in funding. They may encounter more lucrative career options in other fields of endeavor and, in many cases, options for scientific careers in other nations. As a result, their career choices are very sensitive to research funding opportunities. Many have made and will continue to make sacrifices for the chance to work in science, but as the barriers to research careers grow higher these altruistic decisions are severely challenged and may no longer be sustainable. Not only are new investigators the most fragile component of the research enterprise, they have also been hit hardest by the increased competition for research funding. This situation is particularly alarming in the case of R01 grants. In fiscal years 1995 and 1996 there were just over 1300 “new” (type 1) R01 grants awarded to previously unfunded scientists, those individuals seeking their first R01 grants from NIH (Fig. 1). After a sizeable increase to 1420 in 1997, the number of R01 grants awarded to previously unfunded scientists grew at a more modest rate (about 50 awards per year) over

Financial and Organizational Turmoil in the Academic Health Center: Is It a Crisis or an Opportunity for Medical Education?

Received September 29, 2005; revised November 16, 2005; accepted December 2, 2005. Dr. Kirch is Senior Vice President for Health Affairs, Dean of the College ofMedicine, and Chief ExecutiveOfficer of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dr. Kirch is also Professor Psychiatry at The Pennsylvania State University. Address correspondence to Dr. Kirch, 500 University Drive, H162, Hershey, PA 17033; dkirch@psu.edu (E-mail). Copyright 2006 Academic Psychiatry. The degree of turmoil existing in academic health centers (AHCs) has been a matter of extensive discussion and debate over the last decade (1, 2). This commentary offers the perspective of the author, who has served as a medical school dean and academic health system chief executive over the last 12 years. Although representing an individual perspective, an attempt is made to rely on known data regarding the structure and function of AHCs as well as principles for organizational change. Within the AHC community, individual faculty members express views ranging from longing for times that seemed “easier” to feeling that they are in the midst of a full-blown crisis. When asked to identify the cause of this sense of turmoil, more often than not, financial instability is cited as the key driver. There is no doubt that some challenging fiscal forces are at work (3). In the aftermath of managed care and legislative efforts to create balanced budgets, revenues from both private and public payers for healthcare services have been significantly restricted. The effect on teaching hospitals and practice plans has been profound. Another factor is that direct public appropriations to medical schools have had their growth slowed or in some cases have been significantly decreased. In addition, as the “hard landing” following a 5-year doubling of the budget for the National Institutes of Health has occurred, competition for research funding has become even more intense. Finally, with concern mounting regarding medical student debt, increased scrutiny has been placed on tuition levels (4). Perception and Reality

Government Technology Acquisition Policy: The Case of Proprietary Versus Open Source Software

This article begins by explaining the concepts of proprietary and open source software technology, which are now competing in the marketplace. A review of recent individual and cooperative technology development and public policy advocacy efforts, by both proponents of open source software and advocates of proprietary software, subsequently follows, with supporting positions articulated. This is followed by an analysis of the results of a recent draft of a Center for Strategic & International Studies global study of government initiatives to incorporate open source software as an option in their institutional operations. The article concludes with analysis and recommendations on public policies for appropriate software technology assessment policy. For governments, the encouragement of neutral standards (i.e., not favoring one software business model), open competition for research funding of software development, and nondiscrimination in computer software procurement policies will result in the most effective and efficient procurement decisions.

Contests: A Unique, Mixed Strategy Equilibrium

Actions in games that address economic environments such as auctions and oligopoly games are typically costly, and signals, or types, are interdependent. Consequently, such games may not have equilibria supported by monotone strategies, monotone equilibria, see Landsberger and Tsirelson (1999, 2000). Derivation of pure strategy nonmonotone equilibria when types are interdependent and continuously distributed has not been explored in the literature, and it is certainly a non trivial matter; mixed-strategy equilibria pose additional problems. We address these issues by considering a contest game that can be interpreted as competition for research funds or jobs. Assuming a multinormal distribution of signals, we were able to establish a mixed strategy equilibrium and prove that this is the only equilibrium in the class of all equilibria. Various properties of this equilibrium were established. We showed some pitfalls one may encounter by trying to impose a-priori (reasonable) restrictions on strategies, or trying to conduct the analysis assuming a general class of signal distribution.

US budget proposal favors biomedical over basic sciences

US president George W. Bush has carried through his campaign promise to stand by the planned increases in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, but perhaps at the expense of the more basic research programs. The NIH is likely to see almost a 14% increase in funding for 2002 (which translates to almost 3 billion additional dollars), while the National Science Foundation, the major funding source for non-biomedical research at US universities, could only receive a 1–2% increase, down from 14% in 2001. If competition for research funds is a theme of the future, support for all scientific programs will be threatened by fragmentation of lobbying efforts and congressional priorities.

Authorship patterns in marine mammal science, 1985–1993

Authorship studies in such disciplines as physics and economics show that with the passage of time there has been an increase in the number of authors per paper, indicating a trend toward more collaboration. In this study, a search was run on the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts database to identify marine mammal science papers published from 1985 to 1993. A total of 1308 papers published in scientific journals was examined. There were weak but statistically significant trends in the increase in the number of authors per paper as well as in the number of multi-authored papers written by authors from different institutions, with the passage of time. Possible reasons for these results include the increasing specialization of researchers necessitating collaboration, more access to electronic means of communication, and more competition for research funds. Confounding factors in this analysis include the possibility that different journals have different publication patterns and regional vs. national/international journal differences.

Communication, Competition, and Secrecy: The Production and Dissemination of Research-Related Information in Genetics

The dissemination of experimental materials, instruments, and methods is central to the progress of research in genetics. In recent years, competition for research funding and intellectual property issues have increasingly presented barriers to the dissemination of this "research-related information. "Information gathered in interviews with experimental geneticists and analysis of acknowledgment patterns in published genetics research are used to construct a series of basic scenarios for the exchange of genetic materials and research methods. The discussion focuses on factors affecting individuals' behavior and expectations as information requesters and information providers.

The Physical Sciences and Mathematics

University faculty in the physical sciences and mathematics— the quantitative sciences—must generate their own research funds, often including funds to support their graduate students. The major funding source is the federal government, through its various funding agencies; the competition for research funds is intense. As a result, an agency's funding criteria, which depend on the agency's mission, can greatly influence research directions in a broad field of quantitative science. In particular, such influences—amounting to a significant skewing of research directions and subfield growth in university quantitative science, with possible effects on university recruiting and administrative policies as well—have resulted from the mission orientation of the Department of Defense (DoD), coupled with recent increases in DoD funding. Concluding observations discuss some possible means of alleviating the problems posed by DoD funding of university quantitative science.

Toward an adequate pool of clinical investigators.

COMMENTARY AND DISCUSSION Toward an Adequate Pool of Clinical Investigators fOHN F. SHERMAN* A primary cause of our concern has been an alarming decrease in the number of qualified young physicians who seek training opportunities for careers in academic medicine with an emphasis on clinical research. The extent of this concern may be measured by the fact that it has been the theme of three recent presidential addresses of the American Federation for Clinical Research and the Association of American Physicians. Avoiding the temptation to add another voice to the definition of clinical investigation, I shall refer only to the necessity of assuring an adequate pool of physicians undertaking research which involves human subjects in one manner or another. I propose to address four areas of importance : The first has to do with money or funding for research, especially for clinical investigation and the training for careers in it; the second speaks to changes which are occurring in our institutions and their faculties; the third, which I have not heard mentioned during this meeting, is the influence ofthe clinical specialty boards; and the fourth is the hopeful sign of a heightened interest in research on the part of contemporary medical students. First, the level of funding for biomedical research. I seriously doubt that Swisher's prediction of a "relatively major retrenchment in biomedical research" will occur. There is no question that the rate of increase in support has diminished in recent years, but the data displayed by Bever and Whedon earlier in this volume refute some of the claims about cuts in funding levels. This is not to say that we could not effectively use more money or that we should not mount vigorous efforts to assure a reasonable rate of growth in funding for health-sciences research. Such efforts ?Vice-president, Association of American Medical Colleges, 1 Dupont Circle, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007.© 1980 by The University of Chicago. 0031-5982/80/2322-0156$01.00 Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Winter 1980 · Part 2 S79 must include a greater emphasis on financial support from sources other than the federal government. The probability of greater competition for federal funds for all domestic programs heightens the need for more vigorous, sophisticated, and continuing efforts on behalf of our cause. Because of preoccupations with the direct funding of research, too little attention has been paid, in my opinion, to the impact of the massive funding in recent years for health services. That revenue, which is derived from a combination of public and private sources, has resulted in increasing distractions to both faculty and institutional officials. As Skinner pointed out earlier, income from private-practice plans has become, for both individual faculty members in clinical departments and for the medical schools as a whole, a larger source of revenue than that from biomedical and behavioral research. In addition, these sources of income , particularly from Titles 18 and 19 of the Social Security Act, have brought a flood of time-consuming and costly regulations. I suggest that these circumstances cannot help but distract the institutions' staff from research and must represent a significant influence on the career decisions of young M.D.'s. As for changes within the institutions and their faculties, I find myself in mild disagreement with Swisher's generalization that the "newer, smaller, less-known, and fiscally weaker medical schools" would probably suffer more heavily from cutbacks in federal funding than the "older, prestigious schools of the East Coast where many academic people are now trained." My disagreement arises, first of all, from the fact that many of the newer schools, usually having state support, are probably fiscally stronger than some of the older schools, especially those in the private sector. Furthermore, data from the NIH show that four of the West Coast schools have been among the leaders in NIH funding in recent years. More important, the emphases on primary care and community involvement and the competition for research funds have resulted in the emergence of two types of schools within the institutional population: The first are those which have traditionally carried on a major program in biomedical and behavioral research, and the second are more oriented...