Collaborative Research Culture Framework V5

A framework is available for use in workshops, seminars and other publications to support discussion and professional development of researchers in relation to Collaboration. The framework supports mapping and evaluation of current network, planning for future networks and exploration of collaborative practices

Collaborative Research Culture Framework V2

The framework was developed collaboratively as the two authors were preparing to make separate presentations on the topic of collaboration. Researchers and related stakeholders are invited to use the cultural framework to inform reflection, enabling the creation of healthy (productive and sustainable) collaborations. Highlights of the framework are trust and respect (the roots of collaboration) collaborative communities (the fields of collaboration) and the generation of outputs (the fruits of collaboration)

Supporting higher degree research collaboration: a reflection

This paper demonstrates the application of a collaborative research framework (Gasson & Bruce, 2017) to the Higher Degree Research (HDR) journey. We propose that by positioning this as a collaborative research culture framework it will enable discussion about developing (building, sustaining and maintaining) healthy and productive collaborative research cultures. Both authors were invited to discuss research collaboration in different spaces. We established a way forward by discussing the critical elements of such collaboration. Out of this we built a framework (Gasson & Bruce, 2017). In the course of sharing this framework with colleagues it became clear that the productive discussion and issues lay around building and managing a sustainable collaborative research culture. We realized that evaluating the collaboration is easier (based on performance metrics), evaluating the culture is more difficult but also important. Further we noted that evaluation work to date has focussed on measurable outcomes associated with visible research activity and their outputs. This framework suggests that focus on the culture would be informing, enabling productive cultures to be established. This paper will provide a background as to why this is important and relevant to the current climate (Australian Government, 2015; Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, 2017; Department of Education and Training, 2017; McGagh et al, 2016); Productivity Commission, 2017; Watt, 2015) and describe the proposed culture framework. We then move on to a narrative reflection on the application of the initial collaborative research framework in two contexts and the ensuing discussions and issues that arose. This has led to our view that there is a need for a deliberate focus on the development of a collaborative research culture as an enabler of research productivity; this leads to consideration of the application of the collaborative research culture framework in the HDR context. We conclude the paper by raising key questions such as: What are the characteristics of a productive collaborative research culture? What puts a productive collaborative research culture in place? What puts a productive collaborative research culture at risk? How is a productive collaborative research culture measured and maintained? What is the role of research leaders in building, maintaining and sustaining productive collaborative research cultures? In moving the discussion into the HDR context our intention is to consider how to support students and their supervisory teams to respond optimally to the call for increased collaboration/end-user engagement. The proposed application of the culture framework moves discussion from evaluation, measurement and reporting on the impact of these engagements to the underpinning culture required to enable development of research collaborations. Development work involves a three stage approach starting with building, moving to maintaining and then sustaining based on a justification of the research collaboration’s productive measureable outcomes. Our view is that this development work sits with research leaders. To date these leaders have relied on intuition and modelling from past experience to inform their activity. However, with the increasing focus on collaborative research and its measurement a more systematic approach may be needed. This approach provides leaders with a cultural focused perspective. An example of the application of the framework is provided to demonstrate this

Supporting higher degree research collaboration

This theoretical paper demonstrates the value of a collaborative research culture framework (Gasson & Bruce, 2018a), featuring trust and respect as core elements of healthy collaborations, to support the research success of Higher Degree Research (HDR) students. Higher Degree Research is a term used in Australia to reference Doctoral and Master by Research programs. We propose that by positioning collaboration as part of a research culture built on trust and respect, discussion about and development of healthy collaborative research culture will be facilitated. A healthy culture is defined as one that supports sustainable and productive collaborative research.The applications of the framework demonstrate the role the framework can play in supporting researchers to understand, engage in and manage collaborations. Reflection on discussions to date has led to our view that collaborative success requires a unique set of skills (i.e., skills in the development of a collaborative research culture) and that the framework provides a deliberate and overt way of supporting development of those skills.The framework helps HDRs develop the capacity to build healthy collaborative research cultures vital for their research productivity and longer term success as researchers

Trans-Pacific doctoral success – A collaborative cohort model

The San Jose Gateway PhD program is a doctoral partnership between the School of Information at San Jose State University (SJSU) in the USA, and the Information Systems School at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. Because of Californian legislation, SJSU has not been able to offer PhD degrees. The Gateway Program therefore provides a research pathway for SJSU’s coursework students. It also helps the School to grow the research capacity of academic staff. For QUT, the Program provides the opportunity to advance research agendas and to build strong international connections and partnerships. The Program began in 2008. It is a distance-delivered cohort-based scheme with new students commencing in August of each year. All students are enrolled as part-time students in QUT’s Doctor of Philosophy. Each student is assigned supervisors from both universities. In addition to individual and group supervisory meetings, all students and supervisors meet in a virtual meeting space once a month. The online monthly meetings are supplemented by two residential events each year: (i) a one week face to face residential in August at San Jose State University, and (ii) an online residential in March. This paper will critically reflect upon this unique Program, which has led to high quality research outcomes, rapid completions, and noteworthy graduate employments. Critical consideration of the challenges and future proofing of the approach will also be explored

Telling stories: extending informed learning with narrative theory

Introduction. Learning design in the information profession may open new opportunities by addressing learners as whole persons with a historical past, a current situation, and future aspiration, with their own beliefs and values. These are, according to Paul Ricoeur, stories. Method. This conceptual paper explores the ideas of Ricoeur's hermeneutic phenomenology of narrative (a theoretical description), and Bruce's phenomenography of informed learning (a model of information literacy experience) as perspectives of meaning making. It suggests the use of narrative awareness as an enabler of informed learning. Analysis. This paper provides insights into the information learning experience by considering Bruce's seven faces of informed learning as aspects of the creative process of narrative that Ricoeur refers to as a mimesis. The paper highlights the holistic and creative process of narrative structure in enabling learners to orient themselves as information users. Conclusions. Understanding informed learning as a narrative construct offers an account of learners' experiences as a process of meaning making and narrative making in the formation of an unfolding identity through time. With this understanding, information professionals may be encouraged to incorporate narrative as a strategy for supporting learners navigate information spaces

Crossing literacy and informed learning boundaries with Manga

This research investigated high school students’ experiences of informed learning in a literacy development workshop. It was conducted in the library of an Australian high school with a low socio-economic population. Building upon students’ fascination with Manga fi ction and artwork, the workshop was part of a larger university– community engagement project, Crossing Boundaries with Reading, which aimed to address widespread literacy challenges at the school

Designing rich information experiences to shape learning outcomes

Students in higher education typically learn to use information as part of their course of study, which is intended to support ongoing academic, personal and professional growth. Informing the development of effective information literacy education, this research uses a phenomenographic approach to investigate the experiences of a teacher and students engaged in lessons focused on exploring language and gender topics by tracing and analyzing their evolution through scholarly discourse. The findings suggest that the way learners use information influences content-focused learning outcomes, and reveal how teachers may enact lessons that enable students to learn to use information in ways that foster a specific understanding of the topic they are investigating

The Drosophila Caspase DRONC Cleaves following Glutamate or Aspartate and Is Regulated by DIAP1, HID, and GRIM

The caspase family of cysteine proteases plays important roles in bringing about apoptotic cell death. All caspases studied to date cleave substrates COOH-terminal to an aspartate. Here we show that the Drosophila caspase DRONC cleaves COOH-terminal to glutamate as well as aspartate. DRONC autoprocesses itself following a glutamate residue, but processes a second caspase, drICE, following an aspartate. DRONC prefers tetrapeptide substrates in which aliphatic amino acids are present at the P2 position, and the P1 residue can be either aspartate or glutamate. Expression of a dominant negative form of DRONC blocks cell death induced by the Drosophila cell death activators reaper, hid, and grim, and DRONC overexpression in flies promotes cell death. Furthermore, the Drosophila cell death inhibitor DIAP1 inhibits DRONC activity in yeast, and DIAP1's ability to inhibit DRONC-dependent yeast cell death is suppressed by HID and GRIM. These observations suggest that DRONC acts to promote cell death. However, DRONC activity is not suppressed by the caspase inhibitor and cell death suppressor baculovirus p35. We discuss possible models for DRONC function as a cell death inhibitor

The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Clinical, Pathological, and Biomechanical Study

Because a history of shaking is often lacking in the so-called “shaken baby syndrome,” diagnosis is usually based on a constellation of clinical and radiographic findings. Forty-eight cases of infants and young children with this diagnosis seen between 1978 and 1985 at the Children\u27s Hospital of Philadelphia were reviewed. All patients had a presenting history thought to be suspicious for child abuse, and either retinal hemorrhages with subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhages or a computerized tomography scan showing subdural or subarachnoid hemorrhages with interhemispheric blood. The physical examination and presence of associated trauma were analyzed; autopsy findings for the 13 fatalities were reviewed. All fatal cases had signs of blunt impact to the head, although in more than half of them these findings were noted only at autopsy. All deaths were associated with uncontrollably increased intracranial pressure. Models of 1-month-old infants with various neck and skull parameters were instrumented with accelerometers and shaken and impacted against padded or unpadded surfaces. Angular accelerations for shakes were smaller than those for impacts by a factor of 50. All shakes fell below injury thresholds established for subhuman primates scaled for the same brain mass, while impacts spanned concussion, subdural hematoma, and diffuse axonal injury ranges. It was concluded that severe head injuries commonly diagnosed as shaking injuries require impact to occur and that shaking alone in an otherwise normal baby is unlikely to cause the shaken baby syndrome