Successful Research Program Research Articles

Wassily Leontief's Research Program: Science, Beliefs, Institutions

Wassily Leontief met with decades of success for the development of input-output analysis, and yet he remained a staunch critic of the economics profession throughout his life. To understand his success, its limits, and the origins of his discontent, this article separates the scientific activities of input-output from the system of belief built around it, and from the institutions set up to advance Leontief's research program. This leads to considering the interaction of input-output with other research programs through three poles: the scientific debate, the collision of belief systems about the world, and an institutional fight for funds and researchers. The end result is a picture of how Leontief managed to build a successful research program in which scientific inquiry led to beliefs about the world that were able to justify building institutions promoting input-output, in an environment of competition and cooperation.

Gender Differences in Faculty Experience with Start-up Packages: A Case Study from a Public University in the Southeastern U.S.

Start-up packages are a tool for successful transition to an academic career. This institutional case study examined the faculty experience with start-up packages at one public university in the Southeastern United States including gender differences, content, negotiation, and perceived outcomes. A mixed method research design was utilized to answer the study research questions. Data were gathered through an online survey with quantitative and qualitative questions. Data from 121 participants were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi‐squared test, and thematic analysis. Most start-up package agreements included moving expenses, personal computer and software, and start-up funds. On the other hand, child daycare, guaranteed junior sabbatical, and salary advancement were the most missing benefits in the agreements. Male faculty were able to obtain, significantly more often than female faculty, a specific number of years for secure funding, laboratory space, and student or postdoc funding in their agreements. Faculty were not well prepared for the negotiation process, and they were not aware what exactly they needed to establish a successful research program. Universities should focus more on the influence of start-up packages on faculty careers because perceived unfair treatment during the negotiation process or during administration can influence faculty performance and their turnover intentions.

Afterword - L1 Education between von Humboldt and Chat GTP

L1 education has its main foundation in von Humboldt's concept of Bildung integrating the study of language and literature as a contribution to personal growth. Since this perspective gets less attention nowadays, it is argued that we need to re-invent L1 education as meaning-making in which not only offline texts but also all sorts of online products need to be taken as a starting point for learning to reason as an antidote to recent societal developments that in the long run might cause a potential threat to democracy as we know it. In addition, contemporary L1 education is also facing the challenges of globalization and digitalization. Globalization-induced mobility and immigration lead to, among other things, super-diverse classrooms that include a gamut of languages, cultures, and religions. In reaction, L1 education tends to take a rather narrow focus on national, or even nationalistic, contents in the field of language, literature, and culture, potentially leading to the exclusion of certain categories of students. Digitalization, booming business in educational contexts due to the COVID-19 pandemic, also poses challenges to L1 education. Students need to become digitally literate citizens to survive in the post-digital world they inhabit, and L1 education has both the tools and the means to help them acquire digital literacy skills and awareness. To shape L1 education in such a way that it can cope with these challenges, we need to base the L1 curriculum, its subject contents, and its didactic approach on research that starts where the teachers and students are, that is, in the classroom, and that takes their practical experiences seriously. The qualitative research methodologies developed within the International Mother Tongues Education Network can play a role in formulating a timely and successful L1 research program.

Integrating learners into research and quality improvement projects: A joint opinion of the Adult Medicine and Education and Training Practice Research Networks of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy

AbstractResearch plays a vital role in advancing the pharmacy profession and improving patient care. It is a fundamental skill for learners to develop during their training under guided mentorship. Incorporating learners into research and quality improvement (QI) projects can yield numerous benefits for the learner, mentor, and institution. Despite this, there are barriers to integrating learners into research and QI projects which may stem from institutions and individuals. To ensure success when engaging in the research process, strategies centered around clear communication and illustrating the value should be implemented. Successful research programs require planning strategically, setting clear expectations, providing mentorship, and remaining adaptable to overcome barriers encountered during the process. The purpose of this paper is to discuss barriers to incorporating learners into research and QI projects and provide both mentors and learners strategies, tips and examples for success with perspectives and opinions from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Adult Medicine and Education and Training Practice Research Networks.

The irreconcilability of insight

We are said to experience insight when we suddenly and unexpectedly become aware of the solution to a problem that we previously took ourselves to be unable to solve. In the field of comparative cognition, there is rising interest in the question of whether non-human animals are capable of insightful problem-solving. Putative cases of animals demonstrating insight have generally attracted two types of criticism: first, that insight is being conflated with other cognitive capacities (e.g., causal cognition, or mental trial and error); and, second, that the relevant performances merely reflect associative learning—and on the received understanding of insight within comparative cognition, insight necessarily involves non-associative processes. I argue that even if we grant that some cases of animal insight do withstand these two criticisms, these cases of purported animal insight cannot shed light on the nature of insightful problem-solving in humans. For the phenomenon studied by cognitive psychologists under the heading of insight is fundamentally different from that studied in comparative cognition. In light of this impasse, I argue that the reinterpretation of the extant research on animal insight in terms of other high-level cognitive capacities (means-end reasoning in particular) can improve the prospect of a successful comparative research program.

Emile Eugéne Burcker

Emile-Eugène Burcker (1846-1908) was a French military pharmacist who carried out a successful research program on the application of the Friedel-Crafts method to the synthesis of acids, ketones, aldehydes, and glycols in the aromatic series, which finally culminated in his doctoral thesis. In particular, he was able to synthesize a significant number of new acetonic and ketonic acids characterized by the presence in their molecule of both the carbonyl group CO and the group COOH; thus, having the ability to react as ketones, forming salts, esters, and as ordinary acids, and everything also, under the influence of nascent hydrogen, of forming oxyacids or acid-alcohols. Some new compounds included benzoylpropionic acid, benzhydrylpropionic acid, phenyl propyl acetone, toluylpropionic acid, phenylcamphoric acid, etc. Burcker also established the best procedure for dosing KOH, as well as an improved version of the Kjeldahl method to determine the amount of nitrogen present in organic compounds. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073732485 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}

The Commons

Commons—resources used or governed by groups of heterogeneous users through agreed-upon institutional arrangements—are the subject of one of the more successful research programs in the social-environmental sciences. This review assesses research on the commons to accomplish three tasks. First, it surveys the theoretical, substantive, and methods-focused achievements of the field, illustrating how commons research has also influenced natural resource policy making. Second, it examines the changing trajectories of commons research, emphasizing the growing interest of commons researchers in new methods and the application of insights to new social contexts. Third, the review suggests that research on the commons can find continuing relevance by addressing contemporary and future social-environmental challenges. It highlights three directions in particular: ( a) strengthening the focus on issues of power and equity, ( b) applying insights about effective commons governance to collaborative attempts to craft commons in new societal spaces, and ( c) advancing an emerging emphasis on causal analysis and taking advantage of novel streams of large-scale public datasets.

Research Collaborations With Water and Wastewater Utilities

Key TakeawaysA research program is an important opportunity for a utility to optimize processes, support permitting, and inform more cost‐effective future planning decisions.A successful utility research program should engage internal and external stakeholders, including government agencies, nonprofits, consultants, and academics.Starting with a small research project that is affordable and likely to be successful is a way to initiate a utility research program.Case studies demonstrate the value of research collaboration to shift from a reactive focus toward a preventive, risk‐based approach.

Doing science together: Gaining momentum from long-term explorative university–industry research programs

'Doing science together' collaborations are a more intense form of university-industry interactions and are characterized by a mutual involvement and active participation of academic and company scientists in scientific research. Here, we examine the successful approach that AstraZeneca and its internationally renowned academic partners, Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University, implemented to fully unlock the potential of all parties in long-term, explorative, truly collaborative research programs. The underlying premises of these successful research programs are three collaborative governance mechanisms (3MCs) that are required that leverage the strengths of each organization: mutual collaboration; mutually beneficial science; and a mutual governance model with senior management involvement.

Challenges in developing national orthopedic health research agendas in the Netherlands: process overview and recommendations

Growing demand for clinical research to improve evidence-based medicine in daily medical practice led to healthcare evaluation, which assesses the effectiveness of the existing care. The first step is identifying and prioritizing the most important evidence uncertainties. A health research agenda (HRA) can be valuable and helps determine funding and resource allocation, aiding researchers and policymakers to design successful research programs and implement the results in daily medical practice. We provide an overview of the development process of the first 2 HRAs within orthopedic surgery in the Netherlands and the following research process. In addition, we developed a checklist with recommendations for the future development of an HRA. This perspective guides the development of highquality and widely supported nationwide HRAs, including preparatory actions. This improves the uptake of evidence uncertainties in a successful research program and disseminates evidence-based literature in daily medical practice to improve patient care.

How to Get a Job Offer from a Smaller Joint Teaching‐Research Mission University and What to Do Once You Have It

How to Get a Job Offer from a Smaller Joint Teaching‐Research Mission University and What to Do Once You Have It

2023 ACS National Award winners—Part IV

Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator: Robert R. Knowles Sponsor: Pfizer Endowment Fund Citation : For establishing proton-coupled electron transfer as a general approach to solve synthetic challenges in the areas of free radical chemistry, asymmetric catalysis, and organometallic chemistry Current position: Professor of chemistry, Princeton University Education: BS, chemistry, College of William and Mary; PhD, organic chemistry, California Institute of Technology Knowles on the most rewarding part of his job: “The process of taking an idea that begins as a drawing on a blackboard and developing it into something real that other people can actually use and build upon.” What Knowles’s colleagues say: “Rob has established an extraordinarily original and successful independent research program and set new directions in the field of reaction chemistry. He is a highly creative synthetic and mechanistic chemist, with a remarkably insightful and probing mind.”—Eric

Launching Your VR Neuroscience Laboratory.

The proliferation and refinement of affordable virtual reality (VR) technologies and wearable sensors have opened new frontiers in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. This chapter offers a broad overview of VR for anyone interested in leveraging it as a research tool. In the first section, it examines the fundamental functionalities of VR and outlines important considerations that inform the development of immersive content that stimulates the senses. In the second section, the focus of the discussion shifts to the implementation of VR in the context of the neuroscience lab. Practical advice is offered on adapting commercial, off-the-shelf devices to a researcher's specific purposes. Further, methods are explored for recording, synchronizing, and fusing heterogeneous forms of data obtained through the VR system or add-on sensors, as well as for labeling events and capturing game play. The reader should come away with an understanding of fundamental considerations that need to be addressed in order to launch a successful VR neuroscience research program.

Terug naar Bonger

Bonger revisited. On a false start and a sudden full speed ahead in Dutch sociology Our tentative hypothesis is that institutionalization of an academic discipline, for example by way of university chairs and disciplinary training schools, contributes to scientific progress. Yet, although Bonger contributed to all of sociology’s three main problems (cohesion, inequality and rationalization), his appointment as the first professor for sociology in the Netherlands, did not make for a successful take off. Institutions also have unintended negative consequences. Bonger remained isolated, the 1921 Academic Statute only allowed him to teach minor subjects (criminology and sociology), and he hardly attracted major students. Moreover, Dutch sociology suffered badly in WOII, losing, among other scholars, Bonger. A change in the Academic Statute after WOII led to nine disciplinary training schools at existing universities, and to 12 professorships in sociology. Of the newly appointed professors, only Kruijt and Van Heek developed a successful research programme driven by one main question broken down into several sub questions. In the decades after them, Lammers, focusing on human organizations, formulated two groups of related questions that contributed to the growth of sociological knowledge.

The Great Resignation III

The Great Resignation III

Multiple Streams Framework as Scientific Research Program and Tool for the Analysis of Public Policy Issues

Abstract The Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) is currently one of the most widely used frameworks in policy process research. It explains how policy agenda develops in the policy process with emphasis on policy adoption. This article examines MSF from the perspective of the history of science and Lakatos’ methodology of scientific research programs. In this respect, we consider MSF a “semi-strong theory” that uses a form of subsumption under theory for scientific explanation. This differs from a “strong” explanatory theory (e.g., physics), which uses explanations in the form of subsumption under scientific law. From the point of view of Lakatos’ methodology, MSF represents a scientific research program. The basic element is a hard core given mainly by the MSF hypothesis for the framework as a whole and MSF assumptions and key structural elements. Around the hard core there is a protective belt of auxiliary hypotheses. They correspond to hypotheses related to the framework’s key elements and to the hypothesis for the framework as a whole. MSF has negative heuristics (prohibition of the use of the modus tollens rule) and positive heuristics, which are represented by a set of theoretically and empirically progressive theories that further develop the MSF research program. An analysis of studies on MSF reveals that single hypotheses are only exceptionally tested using “hard” data and quantitative methods. Qualitative analysis (case studies) predominates, which contributes to the development of MSF theory. Therefore, we can consider a progressive shift in theory. In this respect, MSF can be considered a successful research program. However, in terms of the methodology of scientific research programs, MSF has a number of other opportunities to develop hypothesis testing further and use various modelling methods with data sets. Thus, MSF represents an interesting scientific research program, which needs to be further developed and specified in the spirit of the methodology of scientific research programs, It is a challenge for interdisciplinary research in the field of social sciences.

Creating a resident-centric rehabilitation research team

BackgroundThe 36-month Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) or Physiatry residency provides a number of multidisciplinary clinical experiences. These experiences often translate to novel research questions, which may not be pursued by residents due to several factors, including limited research exposure and uncertainty of how to begin a project.Limited resident participation in clinical researchnegatively affects the growth of Physiatry as a field and medicine as a whole. Thetwo largest Physiatry organizations – the Association of Academic Physiatristsand the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation – participate inthe Disability and Rehabilitation Research Coalition (DRRC), seeking to improvethe state of rehabilitation and disability research through fundingopportunities by way of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NationalInstitute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research(NIDILRR) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Apaucity of new Physiatry researchers neutralizes these efforts.ResultsThis paper detailsthe creation of a novel, multidisciplinary Rehabilitation Resident Researchprogram that promotes resident research culture and production. Mirroring ourcollaborative clinical care paradigm, this program integrates facultymentorship, institutional research collaborates (Neuroscience Nursing ResearchCenter, Neuroscience Research Development Office) and departmental resources(Shark Tank competition) to provide resident-centric research support.ConclusionsThe resident-centricrehabilitation research team has formed a successful research program that waspiloted from the resident perspective, facilitating academic productivity whilerespecting the clinical responsibilities of the 36-month PM&R residency. Residentresearch trainees are uniquely positioned to become future leaders ofmultidisciplinary and multispecialty collaborative teams, with a focus onpatient function and health outcomes.

Stories from the Greenhouse-A Brief on Cotton Seed Germination.

Seed germination is the basis for the proliferation of sexual-reproducing plants, efficient crop production, and a successful crop improvement research program. Cotton (Gossypium spp.), the subject of this review, can be often sensitive to germination conditions. The hardness of the cotton seed coat, storage, extreme temperatures, and dormancy are some of the factors that can influence cotton seed germination. Research programs conducting studies on exotic and wild cotton species are especially affected by those hurdles. Here, we briefly review the challenges of cotton seed germination and some of the approaches our cotton breeding program explored throughout the years.

The Limited Scope of the Democratic Peace: What We Are Missing

AbstractThe democratic peace program arguably constitutes one of the most successful empirical research programs in the discipline. Its main empirical finding motivated extensive theorizing (e.g., challengers, as well as distinct theoretical enterprises), sparked further debate about how to conceptualize and operationalize democracy, and shifted the foreign policy discourse, particularly in the United States. Lost in these successes, however, is a critical unanswered question: how much interstate peace can the democratic peace potentially explain? We explore these limits (i.e., scope, or empirical coverage) in this study. We first identify the peaceful dyadic relationships—namely those that never go to war across long historical periods. We next classify these dyads as democratic (i.e., both members are democracies) or nondemocratic. The empirical analysis then examines this democracy–peace relationship across three time periods, three distinct samples (which address potential false positives), two definitions of “peace,” and two thresholds for democracy. Regardless of how we approach the data, only 4–26 percent of all peaceful dyads qualify as “democratic.” Because we control for the obvious trivial explanation (insufficient capabilities due to distance), some other (set of) factor(s) must account for the majority of interstate peace. We close with a discussion about where future research might search for these factors, as well as the larger policy implications of the study.

Anca Catrina 1971–2021

Our dear friend and colleague professor Anca Catrina passed away February 8, 2021 due to cancer. Anca Catrina was one of those scientists who made life and science more interesting and challenging for all who had the fortune to meet her. Anca was born in Bucharest, Romania. After medical studies at the University of Bucharest, beginning her practical training as physician, she soon became fascinated by the complexity and the unresolved questions in the field of rheumatology. In order to address both patients’ needs and to begin her scientific career, she shared her time between rheumatology specialist training in Bucharest and research training at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, where she produced an outstanding thesis on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2004. Soon thereafter, still in Stockholm, she established herself as a group leader in rheumatology research and as a clinician and developed a research line devoted to the understanding of the origins and effects of immunity associated with rheumatic diseases, in particular RA. Based on her conviction that effective therapy is good, but prevention better, she entered into a long and successful research program exploring the basis for the triggering of autoimmunity in RA. She performed pioneering work that increased our understanding of how external agents affecting the lungs may trigger immunity against post-translationally modified, in particular citrullinated antigens. Thus, together with several of her students, clinicians and basic scientists, she showed how citrullination [1], as well as antibody production against citrullinated antigens, may be increased in the lungs of patients with early RA [2, 3]. She also initiated a very promising research line exploring how immunity triggered in lungs may subsequently target cells in the joint giving rise to symptoms seen also in patients with emerging RA [4, 5]. In parallel with this basic work, she organised clinical studies with cohorts of patients at risk for RA to understand disease development [6], but also to use results from the basic studies for clinical trials testing preventive strategies for RA. It must also be emphasized how Anca's charisma and engagement in her fellow scientists as well as her patients made all who met her a bit more happy, a bit more energetic. She had that ability to see and respect everyone, irrespective of background and status. In the midst of all this work, after being appointed professor and head of academic rheumatology at Karolinska, and after having received much international praise and funding, for example a recent ERC grant and the position as an Executive Committee member of the European Journal of Immunology, she was struck by her disease. Typically for Anca, her passion for science and her support to students and to her many national and international collaborators, she remained active in science until the month before her death. The research group and larger scientific environment that she formed is now continuing the work that Anca was only able to start, but her visions of the power of science in improving health and enhancing international collaboration continues to inspire us and many of her friends and colleagues over the world.