Scientific Marketplace Research Articles

A Scientific Marketplace.

Cognitive science thrives on the diversity of its (sub-)disciplines, and topiCS is the ideal journal for bringing the diversity to bear. In this welcome address as its incoming Executive Editor, I outline my view of the journal and my vision for how to sustain its inviting and integrative power.

Shopping in the scientific marketplace: COVID-19 through a policy learning lens

In this article, we explain how the COVID-19 wicked crisis context influences the quality of critically needed epistemic policy learning and undermines policy effectiveness. We explore those influences on two main dimensions: Vertically (pertaining to the selection of core scientific advice) and horizontally (pertaining to managing scientific interdisciplinarity). We apply the concept using COVID-19 policy responses from England and Belgium, offer an explanatory framework, and provide recommendations for policymakers, including (i) Crafting a policy-science-public narrative maintaining independence, openness, and trust. (ii) Outlining the limitations of science and public expectation setting. (iii) Enhancing interdisciplinarity in policy formulation by utilizing boundary and discipline-spanning structures, and systems thinking mechanisms for dynamic problem synthesis.

A Commentary on Innovation and Emerging Scientific Careers

The aim of this article is to address some of the questions Dr. Paula S. Nurius presents in her article, Innovation and Emerging Scientific Careers: Is Social Work Prepared to Compete in Today‖s Scientific Marketplace? Specifically, this article will focus on what we can do to better prepare our emerging research scholars to be successful innovators through trans-disciplinary training and educational activities. This article recommends two main ideas. The first main idea is that social work co-host meetings, lectures, roundtables and trainings with disciplines we do not tend to collaborate with, in order to build inter-disciplinary partnerships. The second suggestion is that students are socially integrated, via extensive interaction of outside disciplines, through customized semester-long rotation style trainings. By implementing these suggestions, we will be providing a space for our doctoral students to gain an understanding of how different disciplines‖ researchers, technologies, and/or methods can add to their ability to produce innovative ideas, encouraging creative and complex thinking and problem solving.

Social Work Preparation to Compete in Today’s Scientific Marketplace

As the scientific marketplace rapidly evolves, we must keep revisiting strategic preparation of our doctoral students and early career scholars to be successful innovators in these contexts. As an inherently integrative, change-oriented, community-engaged, and context-sensitive discipline, social work has enormous potential as a value-added partner for greater cross-fertilization among scientists and stakeholders not only from the academy but also from clinical settings, laboratories, industry, and systems leadership. Yet social work researchers not uncommonly encounter perception challenges as they strive to bring their scientific potential and wares to the marketplace. This article argues that innovation and impact are now central expectations of research. Current research priorities increasingly require teams to function at a transdisciplinary level of theoretical and methodological integration and to develop translational partnerships. The article concludes with thoughts on educational directions to better prepare our T-shaped emerging scholars to be perceived and function as value-added research innovators.

The scientific marketplace

The scientific marketplace

Reply to comment by Alley et al. on “Catastrophic ice shelf breakup as the source of Heinrich event icebergs”

[1] The authors of Hulbe et al. [2004] are grateful for the opportunity afforded by Alley et al.’s [2005] remarks. The original draft of the comment was shared via e-mail, after which a compelling dialog ensued among the combined group of authors. This is, we believe, exactly what should transpire in the scientific marketplace of ideas, and we were pleased to be approached by Alley et al. [2005] in this way. [2] Three glaciologic issues do seem to warrant clarification. First, the notion of ice shelves as debris filters derives mainly from observations at the fronts of Antarctica’s large ice shelves, not from the small fringing ice shelves advocated in the work of Hulbe et al. [2004]. Indeed, the presence of significant englacial debris in the shattered remains of the Larsen B ice shelf was a primary motivation in our revisitation of the original ice shelf hypothesis. Second, it has been observed recently that glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula and elsewhere are speeding up in the wake of ice-shelf disintegration. The details of those speed-ups require investigation, but this may be a source for additional Heinrich layer sediment after the initial ice-shelf breakup pulse. Third, the ‘‘trigger’’ for ice-shelf breakup is summertime warmth, a signal that may not be apparent in the mean annual temperature revealed by ice-core isotopes. [3] Through all the discussion, one fact seems clear: neither an ice-shelf nor an ice-stream surge model adequately addresses all the known demands of theHeinrich layer record. Neither mechanism is completely unique in its sedimentary and geomorphic signature, yet hope exists, for each has particular attributes that might be exploited in identifying the correct mechanism. [4] We believe our original paper addressed the concerns raised by Alley et al. [2005]. Thus we decline further comment and eagerly await more news from the geologic record. Our goal is to improve the understanding of Heinrich events, not to cling to one explanation or another. PALEOCEANOGRAPHY, VOL. 20, PA1011, doi:10.1029/2004PA001118, 2005

Homeward bound European Union

The central European countries emerging from the break-up of the Soviet Union face an uphill struggle to compete in the global scientific marketplace. Estonia, for one, made real progress in the 1990s, but now an exodus of many of its best young scientists to the West presents new problems.

Distributed Information and Computation in Scientific and Engineering Environments

The NSF Invitational Workshop on Distributed Information, Computation, and Process Management for Scientific and Engineering Environments (DICPM) brought together domain specialists from engineering and the ocean, atmospheric, and space sciences involved in the development and use of simulations of complex systems, and computer scientists working on distributed repositories, visualization, and resource management. The objective was to formulate directions for research efforts to facilitate effective collaboration and to help increase access to information and sharing of results and tools useful in large-scale, distributed, multidisciplinary scientific and engineering environments. Three broad problem areas inhibit such activities: (1) Computational, e.g, insufficient infrastructure for the sharing of very large amounts of information, results, and tools; (2) Structural institutional barriers, e.g., funding, publication, and promotion policies; and (3) Social, e.g., communication barriers stemming from narrow specialization. The participants supported specific steps to address these problems: explicit support and incentives for multidisciplinary activities; the development of digitial libraries to enhance interdisciplinary communication and understanding; and development of a “virtual scientific marketplace” to disseminate tools, results, and expertise;

Online journal marketing strategies

ABSTRACTPublishers and learned societies in the scientific marketplace are faced with new challenges as they move their existing journals from the traditional print format and distribution to an electronic environment. Many of the traditional marketing approaches need to be modified to reflect new features and benefits that online publications offer. In addition, the electronic environment, specifically the World Wide Web (WWW) offer different types of opportunities beyond traditional marketing channels. The following paper will cover several different aspects of marketing electronic journals: traditional marketing considerations; translating traditional methods into electronic marketing strategies; and an emerging marketing channel referred to as the virtual community.

Cell biology: back to basics

A chamber for assessing the invasive properties of cells in vitro, tritium-labelled AZT-triphosphate and a gel microdrop maker are a selection of this week's new products in the scientific marketplace.