Assessing research network and disciplinary engagement changes induced by an NSF program Article

Garner, JG, Porter, AL, Newman, NC et al. (2012). Assessing research network and disciplinary engagement changes induced by an NSF program . 21(2), 89-104. 10.1093/reseval/rvs004

cited authors

  • Garner, JG; Porter, AL; Newman, NC; Crowl, TA

fiu authors

abstract

  • To assess the success of the National Science Foundation's Research Coordination Network (RCN) program, a set of publication measures and visualization tools were used to determine how effective the program is in enhancing interdisciplinary publication and information sharing. The publication patterns of a set of researchers were compared before and after receiving RCN awards. These analyses show significant increases in basic collaboration measures-authors per paper and institutions per paper-following RCN support. Various indications suggest increased linkage among the RCN researchers in terms of extent of co-authoring and of cross-citing each other's work. RCN support appears to foster more interdisciplinary research. Diffusion scores (a new metric) showed that the diversity of articles citing RCN-related articles was similar to those citing control group research. Finally, the articles generated by the project activities showed as especially influential; they appear in high impact journals and are more highly cited. © 2012 The Author.

publication date

  • June 1, 2012

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 89

end page

  • 104

volume

  • 21

issue

  • 2