Recognition Through Awards: A Source of Gender Inequality in Science?

Drawing from Acker’s gendered organizations perspective, this study analyzes the gender distribution of research and non-research awards in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) colleges at a mid-size public doctoral university in the western U.S. This analysis is complemented with a faculty survey (2016) elucidating faculty perceptions of the nomination process and their standing within their department and college. Despite an increase in the number of women among STEM faculty over time, women remain underrepresented among research award recipients, especially at the university level. The ratio of research to nonresearch awards for men is 3 to 6 times that of women faculty. Differences in productivity cannot be invoked as a mechanism for this gendered awards distribution. Women report being overlooked in the nomination process for all awards. This study suggests that the nomination and selection processes put women at an evaluative disadvantage with respect to high-status research awards. Social proximity tends to neutralize some of the evaluation bias at the college level

Libcitations: A Measure for Comparative Assessment of Book Publications in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Bibliometric measures for evaluating research units in the book-oriented humanities and social sciences are underdeveloped relative to those available for journal-oriented science and technology. We therefore present a new measure designed for book-oriented fields: the “libcitation count.” This is a count of the libraries holding a given book, as reported in a national or international union catalog. As librarians decide what to acquire for the audiences they serve, they jointly constitute an instrument for gauging the cultural impact of books. Their decisions are informed by knowledge not only of audiences but also of the book world, e.g., the reputations of authors and the prestige of publishers. From libcitation counts, measures can be derived for comparing research units. Here, we imagine a matchup between the departments of history, philosophy, and political science at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney in Australia. We chose the 12 books from each department that had the highest libcitation counts in the Libraries Australia union catalog during 2000–2006. We present each book’s raw libcitation count, its rank within its LC class, and its LC-class normalized libcitation score. The latter is patterned on the item-oriented field normalized citation score used in evaluative bibliometrics. Summary statistics based on these measures allow the departments to be compared for cultural impact. Our work has implications for programs such as Excellence in Research for Australia and the Research Assessment Exercise in the United Kingdom. It also has implications for data mining in OCLC’s WorldCat

A Conceptual Framework for Research at Canadian Colleges

With the advent of the post-industrial 21st century knowledge-based economy and the demands of global competitiveness, Canada\u27s community colleges are extending their historical mandates (of career-related education and regional economic development) by incorporating research into their traditional programs. However, the recent dramatic growth of research cultures at colleges is occurring in an unsystematic and uncoordinated manner. The purpose of this thesis is to address this issue by proposing a comprehensive, integrated conceptual framework that provides clarity, focus, and direction for building this research culture. A conceptual analysis of research models in higher education is conducted, leading to a working model that is used to analyze the implications of building a research culture at Canadian colleges. The six attributes of the working model (purpose, forms, governance, personnel, funding, outputs) are revised accordingly, and a conceptual model is proposed that reflects and accommodates the unique circumstances in which research is evolving at Canadian colleges. In this proposed Conceptual Framework for Research at Canadian Colleges, the primary research purpose is to enhance and extend the core college mission by enriching the student experience and the quality of college graduates, keeping faculty current and engaged, and contributing to the social and economic well being of the communities that colleges serve. Research forms such as applied research and the scholarship of teaching and learning embody new opportunities that resonate with core missions. Research governance is manifest at colleges in the establishment and implementation of policies and procedures related to ethics, integrity, academic freedom, and conflict of interest, but requires further consideration of faculty participation and intellectual property rights. With respect to research personnel, the lack of faculty release time presents the single greatest barrier to building a sustainable research culture. While colleges are at a severe disadvantage in accessing traditional sources of research funding, Québec\u27s model of College Centres for Technology Transfer provides a robust example of cooperative arrangements involving a spectrum of funding sources. As for research outputs, colleges are currently developing metrics and models appropriate to their purposes. Consequently, this proposed framework provides a conceptual map to chart more clearly the evolution of research cultures at Canadian colleges

Beyond the Numbers: Comprehensive Internationalization at Miami University

Marketing materials for Miami University, a public doctoral university in Oxford, Ohio, frequently reference the caliber and popularity of the university’s outbound student mobility programs. With almost sixty percent of undergraduates studying abroad or away before graduation, outbound mobility has become a core element of both the Miami student experience and the university’s vision for global engagement. This study seeks to go beyond the numbers (i.e. student mobility rates) in examining whether the success of outbound student mobility programs is indicative of successful internationalization across the university as a whole. Using the American Council on Education (ACE) Center for International and Global Engagement (CIGE) Model for Comprehensive Internationalization, this study analyzes Miami University’s internationalization progress since 2012 according to six “pillars” of internationalization: 1) articulated institutional commitment; 2) administrative leadership, structure, and staffing; 3) curriculum, co-curriculum, and learning outcomes; 4) faculty policies and practices; 5) student mobility, and 6) collaboration and partnerships. Findings revealed a clear institutional commitment to internationalization in the form of Miami 2020, the university’s most recent strategic plan, as well as the presence of international, intercultural, and multicultural elements in areas such as faculty hiring, promotion, and tenure policies; inbound and outbound student mobility opportunities; and requirements of the core curriculum. At the same time, the implementation of certain internationalization initiatives continues to present challenges, including cultural, social, and academic issues faced by international students; questions surrounding sustainable leadership in Global Initiatives, the university’s centralized internationalization hub; and the overabundance of short-term, faculty-led programs

The structure and priorities of researchers’ scholarly profile maintenance activities: A case of institutional research information management system

Research information management systems (RIMS) have become critical components of information technology infrastructure on university campuses. They are used not just for sharing and promoting faculty research, but also for conducting faculty evaluation and development, facilitating research collaborations, identifying mentors for student projects, and expert consultants for local businesses. This study is one of the first empirical investigations of the structure of researchers' scholarly profile maintenance activities in a nonmandatory institutional RIMS. By analyzing the RIMS's log data, we identified 11 tasks researchers performed when updating their profiles. These tasks were further grouped into three activities: (a) adding publication, (b) enhancing researcher identity, and (c) improving research discoverability. In addition, we found that junior researchers and female researchers were more engaged in maintaining their RIMS profiles than senior researchers and male researchers. The results provide insights for designing profile maintenance action templates for institutional RIMS that are tailored to researchers' characteristics and help enhance researchers' engagement in the curation of their research information. This also suggests that female and junior researchers can serve as early adopters of institutional RIMS

Serious Fun: Gaming the Book Festival (Forthcoming)

Book festivals provide a tantalising instance of the overlapping cultural, social and economic dimensions of contemporary literary culture. This article proposes the application of a new conceptual framework, that of game-inspired thinking, to their study. Game-inspired thinking uses games as metaphors that concentrate and exaggerate aspects of cultural phenomena in order to produce new knowledge about their operations. It is also an arts-informed methodology that offers a mid-level perspective between empirical case studies and abstract models. As a method, our Bookfestivalopoly and other games focus attention on the material, social and ideological dimensions of book festivals. In particular, they confirm the presence of neoliberal pressures and neocolonial inequalities in the “world republic of letters.” Our research thus makes a contribution to knowledge about the role of festivals within contemporary literary culture, and provides a model for researchers of cultural phenomena who may want to adopt game-inspired, arts-informed thinking as an alternative to traditional disciplinary methods. Résumé Les festivals du livre offrent un exemple attirant du chevauchement culturel, social et économique des dimensions de la culture littéraire. Cet article propose l'application d'un nouveau cadre conceptuel à leur étude, celui de la réflection inspirée par le jeu. La réflection inspirée par le jeu utilise le jeu comme une métaphore qui concentre et exagère certains aspects de phénomènes culturels culturels afin de produire de nouvelles connaissances envers leurs opérations. Il s'agit aussi d'une méthodologie informée par les arts qui offre une perspective à mi-chemin entre études de cas empiriques et modèles abstraits. En tant que méthode, nos Bookfestivalopoly et autres jeux concentrent l'attention sur les dimensions matérielles, sociales et idéologiques des festivals du livre. En particulier, ils confirment la présence de pressions néolibérales et d'iniquités néocoloniales dans . C'est ainsi que notre recherche fait une contribution à la connaissance du rộle des festivals dans la culture littéraires contemporaine, et offre un modèle pour les rechercheurs de phénomènes culturels qui aimeraient adopter une approche inspirée par le jeu et les arts en alternative aux traditionnelles méthodes disciplinaires

Serious Fun: Gaming the Book Festival

Book festivals provide a tantalising instance of the overlapping cultural, social and economic dimensions of contemporary literary culture. This article proposes the application of a new conceptual framework, that of game-inspired thinking, to their study. Game-inspired thinking uses games as metaphors that concentrate and exaggerate aspects of cultural phenomena in order to produce new knowledge about their operations. It is also an arts-informed methodology that offers a mid-level perspective between empirical case studies and abstract models. As a method, our Bookfestivalopoly and other games focus attention on the material, social and ideological dimensions of book festivals. In particular, they confirm the presence of neoliberal pressures and neocolonial inequalities in the “world republic of letters.” Our research thus makes a contribution to knowledge about the role of festivals within contemporary literary culture, and provides a model for researchers of cultural phenomena who may want to adopt game-inspired, arts-informed thinking as an alternative to traditional disciplinary methods. Résumé Les festivals du livre offrent un exemple attirant du chevauchement culturel, social et économique des dimensions de la culture littéraire. Cet article propose l'application d'un nouveau cadre conceptuel à leur étude, celui de la réflection inspirée par le jeu. La réflection inspirée par le jeu utilise le jeu comme une métaphore qui concentre et exagère certains aspects de phénomènes culturels culturels afin de produire de nouvelles connaissances envers leurs opérations. Il s'agit aussi d'une méthodologie informée par les arts qui offre une perspective à mi-chemin entre études de cas empiriques et modèles abstraits. En tant que méthode, nos Bookfestivalopoly et autres jeux concentrent l'attention sur les dimensions matérielles, sociales et idéologiques des festivals du livre. En particulier, ils confirment la présence de pressions néolibérales et d'iniquités néocoloniales dans . C'est ainsi que notre recherche fait une contribution à la connaissance du rộle des festivals dans la culture littéraires contemporaine, et offre un modèle pour les rechercheurs de phénomènes culturels qui aimeraient adopter une approche inspirée par le jeu et les arts en alternative aux traditionnelles méthodes disciplinaires