University Research Administrators Research Articles

Students’ social psychological monitoring: research empiric methods

The article grounds the mechanisms of solving the problem to develop the university students social psychological monitoring system as an education management tool that enables to fulfill the gap of knowledge about the object under control. The research represents the results of the second phase of the Samara university students and prospective students social and psychological monitoring system project. The research first phase formulated the students social and psychological monitoring conceptual framework, revealing readiness to maintain business and research activities as a personality integrative characteristic comprising needs, motivations, values and social attitudes. The present article gives the complex methodology that will be applied in the Samara university students social and psychological monitoring to study their readiness to maintain business and research activities. The methodology comprises social and psychological methods and research techniques, enabling to evaluate extensively the needs, motivations, values, social attitudes and readiness for education activities: 1) Likerts scale; 2) P.M. Lapin and T.V. Razinas adopted motive classifications; 3) M. Rokichs methodology for value orientation study; 4) S. Schwartzs methodology for diagnosing value orientations; 5) questionnaire for examining business and research intentions and attitudes; 6) A.L. Zhuravlev and V.P. Pozdnyakovs modified methodology for diagnosing business motives, Yu.S. Medvedeva and T.V. Ogorodovas methodology for revealing research motivations.The monitoring methodology, resulting from the research, will be realized as a program module in students accounts of the Samara university electronic educational system. The monitoring results will base the recommendations for both students and prospective students when choosing the individual academic path within the competency profile formation, and the university educational, research and business administration authorities.

National Institutes of Health diversity supplements: Perspectives from administrative insiders

BackgroundThe NIH Diversity Administrative Supplement is a funding mechanism that provides support for diverse early-stage researchers. There is limited guidance on how to apply for these awards. PurposeWe describe perspectives of NIH program/diversity officers and university research administrators offering recommendations for diversity supplement submission. MethodsThis article is the product of a working group exploring diversity in research. Nursing faculty from an R2 Historically Black College and University and an R1 research intensive university conducted stakeholder interviews with NIH program/diversity officers and university research administrators. We used content analysis to categorize respondents’ recommendations. FindingsRecommendations centered on harmonizing the applicant with the program announcement, communication with program/diversity officers, mentor/mentee relationship, scientific plan, and systematic institutional approaches to the diversity supplement. DiscussionSuccessful strategies in submitting diversity supplements will facilitate inclusion of diverse researchers in NIH-sponsored programs. Systematic approaches are needed to support development of diverse voices to enhance the scientific community.

A preface for the feature articles “Academy-industry collaboration and university research administrators in national regional universities”

A preface for the feature articles “Academy-industry collaboration and university research administrators in national regional universities”

Death by a Thousand 10-Minute Tasks: Workarounds and Noncompliance in University Research Administration

The article examines administrative workarounds in the context of university research administration. The empirical results from 116 semi-structured interviews with academic researchers with active National Science Foundation awards are framed by a “Rules Response” model positing relationships among rules compliance requests, administrative burden, red tape, and response choices, including compliance, appeal, rule bending, rule breaking, and workaround behaviors. Propositions are presented and reviewed in light of empirical results. The article concludes with implications of empirical results for improving the Rules Response model and a more general discussion of research needed to improve the understanding of both rules compliance and workarounds.

The work of university research administrators: Praxis and professionalization

As part of a project on the social production of social science research, 19 research administrators (RAs) in five Canadian universities were interviewed about work, careers, and professionalization. While rarely featured in the higher education literature, RAs have become an important source of assistance to academics, who are increasingly expected to obtain and manage external research funding. RAs perform multiple roles, notably assisting with the complexities of grant-hunting as well as managing ethical clearance, knowledge mobilization, and related activities. Aspects normally associated with professionalization include organizations that control entry, higher degrees in the field, and clear career paths, all of which are somewhat compromised in the case of RAs. Nevertheless, most of the participants regard research administration as a profession, and we argue that it is more important to focus on the sensemaking and identity formation of these mostly female staff than to apply abstract criteria. Although their efforts do little to challenge a culture of performativity in the academy, and indeed may be regarded as supporting it, the RAs have defined for themselves a praxis dedicated to easing the burdens of the academics, helping one another, and contributing to the greater good of the university and the research enterprise.

Robotic Bureaucracy: Administrative Burden and Red Tape in University Research

Abstract This Viewpoint essay examines university research administration and the use of software systems that automate university research grants and contract administration, including the automatic sending of emails for reporting and compliance purposes. These systems are described as “robotic bureaucracy.” The rise of regulations and their contribution to administrative burden on university research have led university administrators to increasingly rely on robotic bureaucracy to handle compliance. This article draws on the administrative burden, behavioral public administration, and electronic communications and management literatures, which are increasingly focused on the psychological and cognitive bases of behavior. These literatures suggest that the assumptions behind robotic bureaucracy ignore the extent to which these systems shift the burden of compliance from administrators to researchers.

Catfish (Arius bilineatus, Val.) skin protein preparation ameliorates neurobehavioral and axonal and neuronal histopathological alterations in a sciatic nerve crush injury rat model: a novel approach

Preliminary investigations showed that soluble protein fraction‐Fraction C (SPF‐FC) from catfish skin preparations (CSP) from the Arabian Gulf catfish (Arius bilineatus, Val.) exhibit potent anti‐inflammatory and healing properties as shown in our previous clinical trials for the healing of non‐healing diabetic foot ulcers, chronic back pain, and some other neurological disorders. The present study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective and neuroregenerative properties of SPF‐FC derived from CSP on the spinal neurons, regeneration of sciatic nerve fibers, and recovery of sensory‐motor functions in the sciatic nerve crush injury model. Male Wistar rats (weight 250–300 g) were randomly assigned to four groups: (I) SHAM, (II) CRUSH, (III) CRUSH+SPF treated intraperitoneally (IP) and (IV) CRUSH+SPF treated subcutaneously (SC) groups. Rats in CRUSH groups underwent surgery, where the sciatic nerve was crushed, followed by treatment with saline (II) or with 3–12 mg/Kg SPF IP (III) or SC (IV) daily for 14 days. All animals were tested for the neurobehavioral parameters throughout the 6 weeks of the study. Sciatic nerve and spinal cord tissues were processed for light and electron histological examinations, stereological analysis, immunohistochemical and biochemical examinations at Week 4 and Week 6 post‐injury. Administration of SPF IP or SC significantly (p<0.05–0.0001) enhanced the sensory and motor performance on different neurobehavioral functional tests of the nerve‐injured rats. The stereological evaluation revealed significant (p<0.000) histomorphological evidence of neuroregeneration in the sciatic nerve of the CRUSH+ SPF groups compared to controls at week 4 and 6. SPF‐FC treatment significantly prevented the decrease in the number of the NeuN‐immunoreactive spinal neurons ipsilateral to the crush injury, decreased the GFAP immunoreactive astrocytes and increased the GAP‐43 immunoreactivity. The data analysis supports our hypothesis that SPF‐FC immunoreactivity treatment lessens neurobehavioral deficits, enhances axonal regeneration and ameliorate histomorphological nerve alterations following nerve injury. Further, SPF‐FC protects spinal neurons and enhances subcellular recovery by decreasing the astrocytic activity and GAP‐43, thus improves nerve regeneration and functional recovery.Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported by Kuwait University Research Administration (KU Grants No. SL03/14 and SL04/09 and RCF/OMICSRU project SRUL02/13) and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (Grant No. KFAS 2013‐1207‐01A‐D).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

A review of accounting research in internationalising journals in the South African region

Background: This study analyses the accounting research articles published by South African journals.Aim and setting: A review of accounting research in internationalising journals in the South African region that publish accounting research.Methods: The characteristics of accounting articles were analysed. Five journals were analysed, including the four internationalising journals, Investment Analysts Journal, Meditari Accountancy Research, South African Journal of Business Management, and South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences and one local journal, South African Journal of Accounting Research (SAJAR).Results: The findings of this study will be of interest to journal editors, authors who would like their research to make an impact and be cited, as well as university research administrators and government higher education policy-makers.Conclusion: The analyses show that many of the highly cited articles have been published recently, boding well for the citation statistics of these journals in future and indicating some success in their efforts to internationalise. The citations of SAJAR lag behind the citations of the internationalising journals. Each journal publishes articles that cover different subject area(s). Within accounting research, accounting education and social and environmental accounting are popular areas of research, whereas taxation; the public sector; and management accounting are not well represented among published articles during 2015–2016 in these five journals. About half of all accounting articles claim their insights will contribute to the accounting literature, with much smaller percentages claiming to contribute to management, policy-making and practice. The most prolific authors and most prominent universities to some extent follow the most popular subject areas, with a social and environmental researcher, Warren Maroun, featuring strongly, and his university, the University of the Witwatersrand, being prominent. Large proportions of authors of 2015–2016 articles are from outside of Africa, speaking to the success of the internationalisation efforts of the internationalising journals, whereas SAJAR mostly publishes articles by African authors.

The Implications of Contextual Realities on Career Development: The Specific Case of University Research Managers and Administrators in Small Island States

Career development for university research managers and administrators (RMAs) is inherently challenging in small island states. In this article, we argue that by acquiring career adaptability resources, university RMAs can address their career development needs even in contexts with a restricted labor market. We do this by first identifying the factors that shape the career development prospects of university RMAs. Subsequently, we present evidence of how university RMAs in small island states may pursue their career development goals by redefining their roles according to the contextual realities. Career adaptability theory helps us to explore how this redefinition occurs, particularly since adaptability arises from a combination of personality traits (self-regulation) and careful interventions that can build adaptability resources. We use the knowledge from career adaptability theory to identify a number of implications for RMAs, universities, counselors, and professional associations to address career development issues within restricted small island contexts.

ACS explores potential collaborations with Cuba

On June 29, ACS hosted a panel with Cuban dignitaries to discuss ways to collaborate on science and higher education. CE Luis Alberto Montero-Cabrera of the Cuban Chemical Society; Vaughan Turekian of the U.S. Department of State; Carlos Rodriguez Castellanos of the Cuban Academy of Sciences; Kathleen Larmett, executive director of the National Council of University Research Administrators; and Luis Echegoyen, Robert A. Welch Chair Professor of Chemistry at the University of Texas, El Paso. With them is ACS Immediate Past-President Diane Grob Schmidt (far right).

Comparative Understanding of Change of University Research Administrators (URA) between Japan and the USA:

Comparative Understanding of Change of University Research Administrators (URA) between Japan and the USA:

The research management profession within universities in small island states

The past fifty years have witnessed a widespread increase in the study of small states, including island studies; and the rise of the research management profession and its associated literature. Within a small island state context, the profession cannot be taken for granted, owing to smallness and other inherent characteristics of small island states. These characteristics may potentially re-shape the profession in a unique fashion and may influence the manner in which the roles of university research managers and administrators evolve in a small island state. So far, studies investigating the profession in the context of islands and small states have been lacking. This paper aims to instigate a discussion that hopefully inspires further studies about how the research manager’s role and profession may be re-shaped within small island states.

A Theoretical Research about University Research Administration Organization

A Theoretical Research about University Research Administration Organization

Beneficial Effect of (‐)‐epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate (EGCG) on Sciatic Nerve Crush Injury: Stereological analysis

The neuroprotective effect of EGCG on sciatic nerve crush injury is associated with significant neurobehavioral recovery (Renno et al. 2014). In this study, we examined the histological changes in the sciatic nerve after crush injury following EGCG treatment. The mean cross sectional area of the axon showed a significant increase in the EGCG treated group starting at week 4 and continued up to week 8 compared to CRUSH animals. However, axon area remained much smaller in CRUSH+EGCG and CRUSH groups compared to SHAM and NAIVE animals. The number of axons per unit area was significantly decreased in CRUSH+EGCG and CRUSH groups compared to control. The CRUSH group displayed a significant increase in total small and thinly myelinated axon number at week 6 and 8 post‐injury. ECGC treated animals showed a significant decrease in the total myelinated axon numbers. CRUSH+EGCG group showed a significant increase in myelin thickness in the distal sciatic nerve segment at week 4 till week 8 compared to CRUSH animals. EGCG treatment significantly increased the fiber diameter to axon diameter (F/A) ratio and the myelin thickness to axon diameter (M/A) ratio starting at week 2 post sciatic nerve injury compared to CRUSH animals. EGCG has profound positive effect on the myelinated axons; increase in the axon area, myelin thickness, F/A ratio and M/A ratio. In summary, quantitative stereological evaluation revealed significant histomorphological evidence of neuroregeneration in the sciatic nerve of CRUSH+EGCG rats compared to control groups between 2 and 4 weeks postoperatively. The morphometric data analysis supports our hypothesis that EGCG treatment stimulates regeneration of myelinated axons and minimizes histomorphological alterations caused by crush injury of sciatic nerve.This work was supported by Kuwait University Research Administration (grant No. MA01/11).

Can Lean Thinking enhance research administration?

Background: Hospital research administration is expected to provide improved work efficiency and service delivery in the upcoming years. Meanwhile, resources to support scientific research are dwindling, as is the amount of research support personnel. The aim of the study was to investigate the research admission’s user needs, their opinions on the state of today’s scientific research and also to assess its future development needs and find out whether a customer-oriented management philosophy such as Lean Thinking could be implemented in the research administration setting to enhance work processes and services. Methods: In this study, thematic interviews were used as a method. Kuopio University Hospital researchers (n = 7) and research administration personnel (n = 11) were interviewed. The interviews were carried out by one researcher and lasted on average approximately 60 minutes per interviewee. Results: The interviews revealed that several issues, such as bureaucracy, decreased attitudes towards research, lack of transparency and face-to-face customer service by the research administration, have hindered and complicated research work and service delivery. The study addressed a need for a comprehensive, linear, efficiency- and quality-oriented, user-focused management philosophy. Conclusions: The results of the study support implementation of a customer-oriented management philosophy into the research administration to improve its work processes and service delivery. Although Lean Thinking remains untested in the research administration setting, its fundamentals and strengths seem to answer many needs of the research administration.

Models of Research Administration. A Romanian case study

Our paper's aim is to describe and assess a Romanian model of university research administration. There are many approaches in the field of research management and many success examples. In the last few years Romanian public and private universities had to compete for a quite small public research and innovation budget in the context of economic crisis. Moreover the quality insurance authority asked more and more proofs that the Romanian academic world is dedicated to research and innovation activities as well as teaching ones. In this spirit the high education institutions had to develop new internal tools and mechanisms of managing the research activities to respond both to quality criteria and financing needs.

Who Owns What? Private Ownership and the Public Interest in Recombinant DNA Technology in the 1970s

This essay analyzes how academic institutions, government agencies, and the nascent biotech industry contested the legal ownership of recombinant DNA technology in the name of the public interest. It reconstructs the way a small but influential group of government officials and university research administrators introduced a new framework for the commercialization of academic research in the context of a national debate over scientific research's contributions to American economic prosperity and public health. They claimed that private ownership of inventions arising from public support would provide a powerful means to liberate biomedical discoveries for public benefit. This articulation of the causal link between private ownership and the public interest, it is argued, justified a new set of expectations about the use of research results arising from government or public support, in which commercialization became a new public obligation for academic researchers. By highlighting the broader economic and legal shifts that prompted the reconfiguration of the ownership of public knowledge in late twentieth-century American capitalism, the essay examines the threads of policy-informed legal ideas that came together to affirm private ownership of biomedical knowledge as germane to the public interest in the coming of age of biotechnology and genetic medicine.

Prevalence of the Pro12Ala missense mutation in the PPARG2 gene in Kuwaiti patients with primary knee osteoarthritis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptors (PPARs) play an important role in a number of cellular and metabolic functions. This study was carried out to determine the prevalence of a missense mutation (Pro12Ala) in the PPARG2 gene in Kuwaiti Arab patients with primary knee osteoarthritis (OA) and healthy controls with the aim of identifying a possible association.DESIGN AND SETTING:A prospective cross-sectional study carried out at three major teaching hospitals (referral centers) in the country over a one-year period.PATIENTS AND METHODS:The prevalence of PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala missense mutation was determined in 104 Kuwaiti Arab patients with primary knee OA and 111 ethnically matched healthy controls. The prevalence of this Pro12Ala missense mutation was also determined in clinical subgroups of OA patients divided on the basis of age at onset, function and radiologic grading.RESULTSThe Pro-Pro genotype of the PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala missense mutation was detected in 95/104 (91.3%) cases compared to 111/111 (100%) in the control subjects. The heterozygous Pro-Ala genotype was detected in 9/104 (8.7%) of the OA patients, while it was not detected in any of the controls. The Ala-Ala genotype was not detected in any of the OA patients or the controls. No significant differences were detected in the PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala genotypes in the subgroups of patients classified on the basis of age at onset, functional assessment using Lequesne’s functional index, and radiological grading using Kellgren-Lawrence (K-L) grading.CONCLUSIONSThis study found no significant association between the PPARG2 gene Pro12Ala missense mutation and knee OA. However, the presence of the Pro-Pro genotype of the PPARG2 gene mutation has a protective effect against development of OA.

Negative ‘marking’? University research administrators and the contestation of moral exclusion

With the exception of academics, occupational groups within universities remain relatively under‐researched. Based upon qualitative interviews with 27 research administrators in 19 UK universities, this article reports on a small‐scale qualitative project to investigate the workday worlds of these ‘boundary‐crossing’ and ‘occupationally hybrid’ staff. The article focuses specifically upon the organisational constraints imposed upon research administrators in terms of what has been termed ‘moral exclusion’ in the form of: negative labelling, rendering invisible, and stigmatising and blaming. The ways in which research administrators used their social agency determinedly to contest such exclusion and negative labelling are also portrayed. The article concludes with a discussion of the occupational social space offered by this particular role, which many interviewees recounted as being highly positive.

Occupational Knowledge and Practice amongst UK University Research Administrators

AbstractWith the exception of lecturing staff, research on occupational groups and cultures within the UK higher education system is relatively sparse. This paper focuses upon one specialist group, to‐date under‐researched but which plays a central role in contemporary higher education administration: graduate research administrators. This occupational group is of particular interest as its members administer and manage an increasing complex and key area of university life, which in many cases appears to span the putative occupational divide between ‘academic’ and ‘administrative’ work. Based upon qualitative interviews with 27 research administrators, and using some of Bourdieu's conceptual devices, the paper analyses particular kinds of informal occupational knowledge and practice, necessary in order effectively to ‘do’ the complex task of research administration in the pressurized environment of contemporary British higher education.