Research Funding Sources Research Articles

NSF Political Science Program Awards and AAAS Political Scientist Electees

The political science program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces it awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2010. The program funded 75 new projects and 31 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals. Additional program funds were spent on continuing grant increments, which result from awards that were made in previous fiscal years, but for which funds are being disbursed on a yearly basis instead of upfront. The political science program spent $12,753,794 on these research, training, and workshop projects and $345,389 on dissertation training grants for political science students. The program holds two grant competitions annually—Regular Research, August and January 15; and Dissertation Improvement, January 15—and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures.

Knowledge is not Power

The discipline of sociology, as an officially funded area of research and teaching, was created in Iran five decades ago primarily as an instrument to help solve state problems. Today the state remains the main sponsor and client of sociological research. The absence of independent sources of research funding outside the government has left sociology dependent on state agencies and organizations. This situation has significant effects both on sociology and on the direction of policy-making in Iran. State-sponsored research is almost exclusively quantitative, narrowly problem-oriented, secretive and unable to offer concrete policy solutions. Lack of competition and the absence of non-governmental sources of funding have led to the marginalization of disinterested and fundamental research. Independent, critical sociology has always existed but it is in need of greater support. The situation in Iran is not unique: it reflects, in a magnified way, problems faced by sociologists in many other countries as they come under increasing pressures to undertake applied and policy-relevant research. The article concludes with five specific suggestions on how to improve the current state of sociological research.

ECOLOGIES OF EMPIRE: On the New Uses of the Honeybee

This essay examines the rise of the honeybee as a tool and metaphor in the U.S. “war on terror.” At present, the largest source of funding for apiary research comes from the U.S. military as part of efforts to remake entomology in an age of empire. This funding seeks to make new generations of bees sensitive to specific chemical traces—everything from plastic explosives, to the tritium used in nuclear weapons development, to land mines. Moreover, in an explicit attempt to redesign modern battlefield techniques, the Pentagon has returned to the form and metaphor of the “swarm” to combat what it takes to be the unpredictability of the enemy in the war on terror. At the same time, honeybee colonies are collapsing. Rethinking material assemblages of bees and humans in the war on terror, this essay moves beyond the constrained logic and limited politics of many epidemiological investigations of colony collapse. Honeybees are situated within a more expansive understanding of the role of and consequences for the animal in modern empire building.

Allocation of Australia's research dollars: does injury research funding reflect injury burden?

IntroductionBurden of disease estimates have been used to inform prioritisation of research needs. In Australia, National Health Priority Areas (NHPAs), of which injury prevention is one, have been identified as...

Sun‐downing and integration for the advancement of science and therapeutics: the National Institute on Substance Use Disorders (NISUD)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the most prominent funding source for scientific research in the world. It is also a complex and diverse organization, having multiple institutes, centers and offices. NIH emphasizes the need for innovation and collaboration in research to discover critical knowledge, enhance health and prevent disease. Advancement in science requires not only sophisticated methods, but also logical organization. Here, an overview of ‘behavioral research’ (writ large) at NIH is presented, focusing upon the common trinity of ‘alcohol, tobacco/nicotine and other drugs’ and programmatic overlap across entities. Consideration is also given to the origins of institutes and their historical movement across organizational boundaries. Specific issues, concerns and advantages of integration of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse are addressed. It is concluded that advances in understanding, treating and preventing substance use disorders would best be served by (1)review and integration of all related research throughout NIH, (2) logical placement of leadership for this activity in a single institute, here entitled the National Institute on Substance Use Disorders, and (3) close collaboration of this institute with its complementary partner, the National Institute on Mental Health. Thus, NIH can establish an organizational structure and collaborations reflecting the realities of the scientific and disease/health domains. This would make a prominent statement to the world scientific and health communities regarding NIH recognition of the need for innovation (scientific and organizational) and focus upon these myriad interrelated and costly problems.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Partnered Research: Revisiting the Sequestration Thesis and the Role of Universities in Promoting Social Justice

As universities increasingly rely on external sources of research funding, researchers worldwide are realizing that if their work is financially supported by organizations with distinct political or financial interests, they risk their careers if their results deviate from the interests of their funding partners. This article presents a case that illustrates how ugly this situation can become. Reviewing the literature on the advantages and dangers of partnered research, the historical role of universities, funding trends, and university mission statements, the authors contend that universities must engage in service learning and participatory action research, but must ensure that faculty members engaging in academic activity with partners-whether industry, hospitals, governments, nongovernmental organizations, or communities-have their professional integrity protected. If doubt exists about whether the partner can or will honor these principles or the mission of universities for social good, universities should avoid granting joint or affiliate appointments or accepting funds or favors of any kind. Universities also need formal structures to ensure ethical application of innovation and principled partnership engagement. In becoming servants of government or corporatism, universities have become less vital to society and are failing in their mission to promote social justice and sustainability. Strong measures are needed to restore public trust.

111th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Seattle, Washington, July 10–14, 2010

111th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Seattle, Washington, July 10–14, 2010

Relationship between Sponsorship and Failure Rate of Dental Implants: A Systematic Approach

BackgroundThe number of dental implant treatments increases annually. Dental implants are manufactured by competing companies. Systematic reviews and meta-analysis have shown a clear association between pharmaceutical industry funding of clinical trials and pro-industry results. So far, the impact of industry sponsorship on the outcomes and conclusions of dental implant clinical trials has never been explored. The aim of the present study was to examine financial sponsorship of dental implant trials, and to evaluate whether research funding sources may affect the annual failure rate.Methods and FindingsA systematic approach was used to identify systematic reviews published between January 1993 and December 2008 that specifically deal with the length of survival of dental implants. Primary articles were extracted from these reviews. The failure rate of the dental implants included in the trials was calculated. Data on publication year, Impact Factor, prosthetic design, periodontal status reporting, number of dental implants included in the trials, methodological quality of the studies, presence of a statistical advisor, and financial sponsorship were extracted by two independent reviewers (kappa = 0.90; CI95% [0.77–1.00]). Univariate quasi-Poisson regression models and multivariate analysis were used to identify variables that were significantly associated with failure rates. Five systematic reviews were identified from which 41 analyzable trials were extracted. The mean annual failure rate estimate was 1.09%.(CI95% [0.84–1.42]). The funding source was not reported in 63% of the trials (26/41). Sixty-six percent of the trials were considered as having a risk of bias (27/41). Given study age, both industry associated (OR = 0.21; CI95% [0.12–0.38]) and unknown funding source trials (OR = 0.33; (CI95% [0.21–0.51]) had a lower annual failure rates compared with non-industry associated trials. A conflict of interest statement was disclosed in 2 trials.ConclusionsWhen controlling for other factors, the probability of annual failure for industry associated trials is significantly lower compared with non-industry associated trials. This bias may have significant implications on tooth extraction decision making, research on tooth preservation, and governmental health care policies.

Description of prepared foods around recreation center in low income neighborhoods in Baltimore City

Low income African Americans in Baltimore get most of their calories from foods that are high in fat and sugar, with a high proportion coming from carry‐outs and other prepared food sources. However, little is known about Baltimore City's hundreds of carry‐out restaurants. We conducted an assessment of the prepared food environment in low income areas of Baltimore City using an observational checklist. We assessed 13 carry‐outs within a 1 km radius of recreation centers that are currently participating in the Baltimore Healthy Eating Zones trial. Over 60% of the carry‐outs are owned/managed by people of Korean descent. 70% are behind‐the‐glass type of stores, with little direct contact with customers. Only one store had healthy foods listed on the menu. The most common healthy foods is a low fat meat sandwich (92%). 77% had a choice of meat and 31% had a choice of vegetable for the sandwich. Moreover, 23% had salad as an entrée and 38% offered watermelon slices (seasonal). 70% were promoting combo meal that includes fries and soda. Our findings will be used to develop an intervention for carry‐outs to test the feasibility of increasing the availability of healthy options, improved signage, portion size modification, healthier food preparation methods and carryout/restaurant staff training on consumer food purchasing behavior.Funding provided by the Diabetes Research and Training CenterGrant Funding Source: Diabetes Research and Training Center

Insights From Trends in Biomedical Research Funding

BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH IN ACAdemic institutions has been disadvantaged by inconsistent funding sources and amounts, including year-to-year variability, cycles of plenty and paucity, and low levels of funding in the case of health services research. The article by Dorsey and colleagues in this issue of JAMA extends a 9-year analysis (1994-2003) of biomedical funding from all US sources for an additional 4 years (2003-2007). This extension reinforces previous findings and contributes new insights. First, all-source funding increased at a compound, inflation-adjusted annual rate of 7.8% from 1994-2003 but only of 3.4% in the subsequent 4 years. Second, inflation-adjusted National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for the 2 comparison periods declined more dramatically, from a doubling during the first 9 years, nearly all of which occurred from 1998-2003, to a negative annual rate of 2.2%. Viewed in the context of a 30-year annual NIH extramural funding increase of 4.8%, these data suggest that the biomedical research community has experienced a bust-boom-bust cycling of NIH funding during these 14 years, the consequences of which may never be fully delineated. Third, the recent NIH funding decrements have undoubtedly affected academic institutions most seriously. These institutions depend heavily on federal funding for support of biomedical research (65% of total funding), 85% of which is granted by the NIH. Fourth, funding from all other sources (state and local governments, private sources, industry) stayed ahead of inflation and mitigated to some extent the most recent decline of NIH funding. Comparable funding data for 2008 and 2009 are unlikely to be as robust for charitable organizations, foundations, industry, and state or local governments as the result of economy-driven shrinkage of endowments, philanthropy, business profits, and tax revenue. Indeed, industry funding in 2008 no longer compensated for declining NIH funding. Variable research funding has been an obstacle for research program and research faculty development, as well as sustainability, in medical schools and biomedical research institutes. Trend analyses such as those provided by Dorsey et al should inform more effective investment decisions by public and private funders. Complementation and coordination of funding—in addition to long-range planning—involving all funders is a desirable goal, but implementation will be challenging. The injection of $10.5 billion federal dollars into research funding by the American Recovery Reinvestment Act, while welcomed by investigators, has the potential to initiate another uncoordinated and disruptive boom-bust cycle of biomedical research funding if not linked to carefully orchestrated follow-on funding. The dollar values in the report by Dorsey et al were inflation-adjusted for the prices of research personnel, supplies, and equipment using the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index. However, to be competitive, actual annual cost increases for research in institutions also include the escalating cost of replacing research faculty, gap support for unfunded investigators, meeting the increasing expectations for regulatory oversight, updating to more expensive analytical equipment and facilities, and requirements for new support capabilities such as bioinformatics. Biomedical research cost increases beyond the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index are for the most part absorbed by institutions. Institutional intramural funding of research generally adds up to 20% of total research costs. This key source of research funding was not included in the analysis by Dorsey et al. In this context, other data reported are worrisome, namely that all-source (extramural) funding of biomedical research increased 14% during 2003-2007, while total research expenditures by colleges and universities expanded at half that rate (7.4%). These rates suggest that intramural funding of research in academic settings fell behind in the mid 2000s, a situation that does not bode well for the vibrancy of academic research programs. The data provided by the two articles on the financial anatomy of biomedical research make a strong case for more consistent, coordinated, data-driven, and sustainable decisions regarding biomedical research funding. Coordina-

2009 National Science Foundation Political Science Program Awards

The Political Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) announces it awards for basic research support and dissertation improvement grants for fiscal year 2009. The program funded 56 new projects and 34 doctoral dissertation improvement proposals. (Additional program funds were spent on continuing grant increments. These result from awards that were made in previous fiscal years, but where funds are being disbursed on a yearly basis instead all up front.) The Political Science Program spent $10,461,799 on these research, training, and workshop projects and $383,238 on dissertation training grants for political science students. In addition, the program contributed $345,000 to support three Graduate Research Fellowships. The program holds two grant competitions annually (Regular Research, August and January 15; Dissertation Improvement, January 15) and constitutes a major source of political science research funding as part of fulfilling NSF's mission to encourage theoretically focused empirical investigations aimed at improving the explanation of fundamental social and political processes and structures.

Les pôles de compétitivité biomédicaux français : une opportunité pour la recherche partenariale public-privé en santé

A "competitive cluster" is a partnership between businesses, research units and training centers, working together to generate synergies for innovative projects in a particular geographic area. Since 2005, the first five calls for cluster projects have led to the funding of 645 R&D projects involving 13,000 researchers. Together, the R&D expenditure of these projects has so far totaled nearly Euro 3.6 billion. This included public funding of Euro 1300 million, Euro 840 million of which was provided by central government. In the biomedical field, 80 R&D projects have been funded to the tune of Euro 140 million (Euro 81 million from central government and Euro 59 million from local government). A total of 288 agreements have been signed, 12% with large companies, 36% with SMEs and 49.8% with public research laboratories. Alongside the more classical biomedical research funding sources, such as the National Research Agency and government-sponsored projects (on cancer, Alzheimer's disease, rare diseases, etc.), competitive clusters provide the impetus for profound changes in research culture. They draw on the principle of professional guidance and public-private partnerships to build a bridge between the "academic" and "industrial" research arenas. By facilitating knowledge generation and sharing, competitive clusters create a climate of action-driven mutual respect and trust.

Strategies for developing sleep research

The Australasian Sleep Association (ASA) is seeking to develop a strategic research plan to improve the sleep health of Australians and New Zealanders, and to contribute to scientific understanding and clinical practice worldwide. To develop the plan, the ASA Research Committee undertook two projects: (i) a membership survey to establish the research activities, interests, and priorities of members; and (ii) compilation of an electronic library of citations of sleep-related research that involved one or more Australia-based or New Zealand-based researchers. Although the intent had been to develop an investigator-initiated research agenda for the ASA, these two projects revealed that such an approach would not provide a comprehensive and systematic research base to improve sleep health in Australasia. In particular, membership research interests were considered insufficient to adequately address public health issues relevant to the populations of Australia and New Zealand, clinical research for non-respiratory sleep disorders, and pediatric sleep research. The identification of these gaps raises a tension. If the ASA is to endorse additional research priority areas that are not major interests among its members, then additional research funding needs to be found, to avoid competing with the interests of members for limited existing research funding. To address this problem, a series of recommendations are offered to improve the proportion of existing health research funding that is directed towards sleep research, and to develop sources of new funding for sleep research.

Globalized Research and “National Science”: The Case of Peru

Issues in the area of international health research are insufficiently discussed in Latin America. We examine the practices of stakeholders such as the state and the academic community regarding research policy processes and funding sources in Peru. Our findings showed that research policy development and evaluation processes are poor in Peru, most of the country's academic research is published in English only, and researchers' access to funding is limited. Given that the relationship between local academic institutions and foreign research centers is key in developing a "national science," there is a clear need to reinforce the state's capacities for management and research oversight and implementation and to encourage the academic community to improve their institutional policies and research frameworks.

Factors Associated with Results and Conclusions of Trials of Thiazolidinediones

BackgroundWhen a sponsor funds a study of two competing drugs in a head-to-head comparison, the results and conclusions are likely to favor the sponsor’s drug. Thiazolidinediones, oral medications used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, are one of the most costly choices of oral anti-diabetic medications, yet they do not demonstrate clinically relevant differences in achieving lower glycosylated hemoglobin levels compared to other oral antidiabetic drugs. Our aim is to examine associations between research funding source, study design characteristics aimed at reducing bias, and other factors with the results and conclusions of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of thiazolidinediones compared to other oral hypoglycemic agents.Methods and FindingsThis is a cross-sectional study of 61 published RCTs comparing a thiazolidinedione (glitazone) to another anti-diabetic drug or placebo for treatment of type 2 diabetes. Data on study design characteristics, funding source, author’s financial ties, results for primary outcomes, and author conclusions were extracted. Univariate logistic regression identified associations between independent variables and results and conclusions that favored the glitazone. Of the RCTs, 59% (36/61) were funded by industry, 39% (24/61) did not disclose any funding. Common study design weaknesses included inadequate blinding and lack of concealment of allocation. Trials that reported favorable glycemic control results for the glitazone were more likely to have adequate blinding (OR (95% CI) = 5.42 (1.46, 21.19), p = 0.008) and have a corresponding author with financial ties to the glitazone manufacturer (OR (95% CI) = 4.12 (1.05, 19.53); p = 0.04). Trials with conclusions favoring the glitazone were less likely to be funded by a comparator drug company than a glitazone company (OR (95% CI) = 0.026 (0, 0.40), p = 0.003) and less likely to be published in journals with higher impact factors (OR (95% CI) = 0.79 (0.62, 0.97), p = 0.011). One limitation of our study is that we categorized studies as funded by industry based on each article’s disclosure which could underestimate the number of industry sponsored studies and personal ties of investigators. Additionally, our study did not include any head-to-head comparisons of one glitazone to another.ConclusionsPublished RCT comparisons of glitazones with other anti-diabetic drugs or placebo are predominantly industry supported and this support, as well as the financial ties of study authors, appears to be associated with favorable findings.

Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry’s Assault on Science Threatens Your Health

By David Michaels New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 327 pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-530067-3, $27.95 If your time is limited and you are looking for a plan of action to improve the courts and public health regulatory system, start with the last two chapters of David Michaels’ Doubt Is Their Product, which provide steps we can take today to move occupational and environmental health policy forward. Then go back and read the entire book. Doubt Is Their Product presents the ways business interests take advantage of scientific and regulatory processes to obscure the need to address the many current global occupational and environmental problems. Part of the scientific process is to explore and describe the uncertainty that is part of every scientific endeavor. The very nature of scientific exploration is to ask and answer the next question. But rather than accepting the process of scientific discovery, business interests press to have every tiny bit of uncertainty explored before any policy decision can be made, demanding proof rather than precaution—in fact, they even manufacture uncertainty. As a result, decisions are not made; policy is not advanced; problems are not addressed. The historical illustrations Michaels uses are as compelling as they are frustrating: Why must so much illness and death occur before action is taken? Michaels points out that the health consequences of asbestos exposure were first recognized in the late 1800s. Also, shortly after the development of synthetic dyes in the mid 1800s, it was soon apparent that dye workers developed bladder cancer. The health consequences of lead exposure have been recognized for > 2,000 years. Although Europe banned lead-based paint in the 1920s, the United States, despite the scientific evidence, did not finally ban the use of lead-based paints until 1978. It was not the scientific evidence that was lacking, but rather the public and political will. For multiple cases, Michaels documents how businesses made it their business to confuse and mislead the public and decision makers. He provides a fascinating account of some of the people and consulting groups that businesses funded specifically to delay or confuse the decision-making process. Michaels describes the efforts of the tobacco industry to obscure the scientific evidence of the adverse health effects of their products while increasing sales by manipulating nicotine levels and by advertising to young people. (The book’s title is derived from a tobacco industry memo describing how doubt can be used to counter fact.) The consequences and ultimate cost of those adverse health effects, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, are borne by individuals and the general public. The tobacco industry has spent millions to emphasize the uncertainty around scientific findings with the goal of slowing recognition that tobacco use has been a public health disaster. Michaels brings an insider’s perspective and also provides extensive references to support his position. As Assistant Secretary of Energy for the Environment, Safety, and Health in the Department of Energy during the Clinton administration, he worked to acknowledge exposures related to the nuclear weapons industry and consequent health-related issues for workers. He faced the challenge of developing a fair compensation system that recognized the workers who sacrifice their health for their jobs and national security. These experiences provide the passion and motivation for this book. An underlying theme of this book is that capitalism, as currently practiced, prioritizes short-term profits and increased return to investors over human and environmental health. Businesses are driven by two primary priorities: to increase revenue by building and selling more products, and to maximize profits by externalizing costs to another entity. Often this other entity is the public or workers. The public pays for the costs of illness and pollution incurred by workers and the environment; immediate business profits are often valued more highly than the health of workers, public, or the environment. Michaels points out that when industry pushes for more scientific study, in the face of even slight uncertainty, the promotion of public and environmental health is often impeded. One way to address this is through greater transparency with regard to legal decisions, settlements, and basic information on the health effects of chemicals and other hazards. Another is by greater transparency of the source of funding for scientific research and authors’ conflict of interest. Better use of the precautionary principle, the acceptance of sufficient but not absolute proof, is another way to accelerate decision making in protecting human and environmental health. Doubt Is Their Product is a powerful argument for the need to reinforce our ethical responsibilities to protect human and environmental health even when it requires regulation and increased costs. After all, it would seem only fair for those who profit to acknowledge and be accountable for the true costs of their products.

The Governance of University Knowledge Transfer: A Critical Review of the Literature

Universities have long been involved in knowledge transfer activities. Yet the last 30 years have seen major changes in the governance of university–industry interactions. Knowledge transfer has become a strategic issue: as a source of funding for university research and (rightly or wrongly) as a policy tool for economic development. Universities vary enormously in the extent to which they promote and succeed in commercializing academic research. The identification of clear-cut models of governance for university–industry interactions and knowledge transfer processes is not straightforward. The purpose of this article is to critically discuss university knowledge transfer models and review the recent developments in the literature on research collaborations, intellectual property rights and spin-offs, those forms of knowledge transfer that are more formalized and have been institutionalized in recent years. The article also addresses the role played by university knowledge transfer organizations in promoting commercialization of research results.

Percy Julian: Forgotten Genius (review)

Reviewed by: Percy Julian: Forgotten Genius A. Bowdoin Van Riper Percy Julian: Forgotten Genius (2007). Written and Produced by Llewellyn M. Smith and Stephen Lyons. Directed by Llewellyn M. Smith. WGBH/Boston Video. www.wgbh.org 112 minutes. Dr. Percy L. Julian was one of the leading American chemists of the twentieth century. His elegant solutions to the problems of synthesizing complex organic molecules won him international acclaim. He was an acclaimed lecturer, a tireless builder of institutions, and a mentor with dozens of successful students to his credit. His work in industry was central to the development of latex paint, soy-based plastics, synthetic hormones, and dozens of food products. His 1935 synthesis of the antiglaucoma drug physostigmine—a critical step in the treatment of the disease—was cited by the American Chemical Society as one of the landmark achievements in American chemistry. He was instrumental, in the early 1950s, in the development of synthetic cortisone, which freed millions from the half-frozen joints and excruciating pain of rheumatoid arthritis. Julian accomplished all this despite having to scramble, throughout his professional life, for funding, for facilities, and for employment. He never held a professorship at a major research university, never worked for a major chemical or pharmaceutical company, and was marginalized, again and again, by other chemists. Even his election to the National Academy of Sciences—after decades of work that might have won him the Nobel Prize—faced intense, vocal opposition. The reason was depressingly simple: Percy Julian was black. Born in 1899 and raised in Alabama at the height of the Jim Crow era, Percy Julian possessed two qualities common in great scientists: superhuman determination and towering ambition. The former brought him success not only as a scientist but as a businessman (Julian Laboratories, founded in the mid-1950s, made him a millionaire) and humanitarian (he backed, and helped to bankroll, the civil rights movement). The latter, though it contributed to his success, also made him painfully aware of [End Page 68] opportunities lost, and doors closed, to him because of the color of his skin. Family members, colleagues, and Julian himself saw his story as one of great talent squandered by a society too blind to recognize it. It is one of the glories of Percy Julian: Forgotten Genius that it resists the urge to turn this proud, driven, complex man into a plaster saint. It emphasizes Julian’s determination and hard work—arriving at DePauw University with a shaky tenth-grade education, he went on to graduate first in his class and win election to Phi Beta Kappa—without ever making him just an earnest striver. It illuminates his genius without downplaying the role that fortuitous accidents and rival chemists’ blunders played in his success. It presents him as a man on the make—a scientific entrepreneur always on the lookout for the next great research problem, commercial application, or funding source—while making a strong case that such talents were central to his success. The film also avoids the simplistic, celebratory “X invented Y” style of narrative that plagues many earnest attempts to write black scientists and inventors back into the historical record. It shows how Julian’s discoveries emerged not from isolated flashes of genius bur from a carefully constructed research program grounded in his deep knowledge of both chemistry and industrial processes. Percy Julian: Forgotten Genius takes viewers deep into intellectual territory that all but a handful will find unfamiliar: industrial organic chemistry. It does so with extraordinary skill, using simple animations, reconstructed experiments, and commentary by “talking-head” chemists to explain how complex organic molecules are manufactured on an industrial scale. It also provides context, deftly sketching the history of the American chemical industry, the jubilation that greeted the first successful tests of cortisone in 1949, and the entrenched racism that blacks faced in northern cities (like Julian’s adopted hometown of Chicago) after World War II. The contextual sections of the film are so strong that they could be used in courses on social history, business history, or the history of science. Nova’s superb production values prevail throughout the two-hour film. The reenactments of critical experiments are especially...

Shifts in Guidelines for Ethical Scientific Conduct

We analyze the activities and actors involved in articulating and diffusing guidelines for ethical scientific conduct from 1975 to the present. We use a theoretical framework of institutional change at the organizational-field level to examine the co-evolution of the structure of the organizational field of 'scientific research' and its institutional logic. Public agencies have long provided funding to US universities to support faculty research, expecting that implicit norms of scientific conduct would guide behavior. Growing publicity about research fraud in the late 1960s and early 1970s triggered a shift from implicit norms to explicit behavioral proscriptions, with strong administrative oversight. As private sources of research funding exert new pressures on research behavior, public-private partnerships are emerging to articulate explicit, yet voluntary prescriptive norms of research integrity. The analysis demonstrates the co-evolution and co-dependence of changes in the identity and strength of influential actors in the field of scientific research and changes in the norms of scientific conduct. We examine how the normative guidelines have been constructed over time, illustrating the persistence of earlier norms as the foundation for current guidelines. We conclude with implications for future research conduct.

Funding of Parkinson research from industry and US federal and foundation sources

Funding for biomedical and neuroscience research has increased over the last decade but without a concomitant increase in new therapies. This study's objectives were to determine the level and principal sources of recent funding for Parkinson disease (PD) research and to determine the current state of PD drug development. We determined the level and principal sources of recent funding for PD research from the following sources: US federal agencies, large PD foundations based in the United States, and global industry. We assessed the status of PD drug development through the use of a proprietary drug pipeline database. Funding for PD research from the sources examined was approximately $1.1 billion in 2003 and $1.2 billion in 2005. Industry accounted for 77% of support from 2003 to 2005. The number of drugs in development for PD increased from 67 in 2003 to 97 in 2007. Of the companies with at least one compound in development for PD in 2007, most were small (62% had annual revenue of less than $100 million), and most (53%) were based outside the United States. These companies will likely require partnerships to drive successful development of new PD therapies.