'Getting out of the closet': Scientific authorship of literary fiction and knowledge transfer

Some scientists write literary fiction books in their spare time. If these books contain scientific knowledge, literary fiction becomes a mechanism of knowledge transfer. In this case, we could conceptualize literary fiction as non-formal knowledge transfer. We model knowledge transfer via literary fiction as a function of the type of scientist (academic or non-academic) and his/her scientific field. Academic scientists are those employed in academia and public research organizations whereas non-academic scientists are those with a scientific background employed in other sectors. We also distinguish between direct knowledge transfer (the book includes the scientist's research topics), indirect knowledge transfer (scientific authors talk about their research with cultural agents) and reverse knowledge transfer (cultural agents give scientists ideas for future research). Through mixed-methods research and a sample from Spain, we find that scientific authorship accounts for a considerable percentage of all literary fiction authorship. Academic scientists do not transfer knowledge directly so often as non-academic scientists, but the former engage into indirect and reverse transfer knowledge more often than the latter. Scientists from History stand out in direct knowledge transfer. We draw propositions about the role of the academic logic and scientific field on knowledge transfer via literary fiction. We advance some tentative conclusions regarding the consideration of scientific authorship of literary fiction as a valuable knowledge transfer mechanism.Comment: Paper published in Journal of Technology Transfe

Interdisciplinary research and the societal visibility of science: The advantages of spanning multiple and distant scientific fields

Acknowledgements The authors thank editor Ben Martin and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions. The authors are also grateful to the valuable feedback received by Andrés Barge-Gil, Nicolas Carayol, Elena Cefis, Adrián A. Díaz-Faes, Jarno Hoekman, Cornelia Lawson, Óscar Llopis, Orietta Marsili, Francesco Rentocchini, Ammon Salter, and participants in the following workshops and conferences: CREI Ideas Development Workshop (Univ. of Bath, 2021), DRUID (2021), Academy of Management (2021), EU-SPRI (2021) and the Workshop on the Organisation, Economics, and Policy of Scientific Research (WOEPSR, 2022). The authors acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (CSO2013-48053-R); Nicolás Robinson-García is currently supported by a Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science (RYC2019-027886-I). The usual disclaimers apply.Science policy discourse often encourages interdisciplinary research as an approach that enhances the potential of science to produce breakthrough discoveries and solutions to real-world, complex problems. While there is a large body of research examining the relationship between interdisciplinarity and scientific discovery, there is comparatively limited evidence on and understanding of the connection between interdisciplinarity and the generation of scientific findings that address societal problems. Drawing on a large-scale survey, we investigate whether scientists who conduct interdisciplinary research are more likely to generate scientific findings with high societal visibility - that is, research findings that attract the attention of non-academic audiences, as measured by mentions to scientific articles in blogs, news media and policy documents. Our findings provide support for the idea that two facets of interdisciplinarity - variety and disparity - are associated positively with societal visibility. Our results show, also, that the interplay between these two facets of interdisciplinarity has a systematic positive and significant association with societal visibility, suggesting a reinforcing effect of spanning multiple and distant scientific fields. Finally, we find support for the contingent role of scientists' collaboration with non-academic actors, suggesting that the positive association between interdisciplinary research and societal visibility is particularly strong among scientists who collaborate with actors outside academia. We argue that this study provides useful insights for science policy oriented to fostering the scientific and societal relevance of publicly funded research.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (CSO2013-48053-R)Ramón y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science (RYC2019-027886-I

Social Labs in Universities: Innovation and impact in Medialab UGR

Los laboratorios sociales, como espacios de experimentación y cocreación, se han convertido en una de las principales instituciones de innovación en nuestros días. En este marco, los medialabs surgen como un tipo de laboratorios centrados en la experimentación con tecnologías y medios de comunicación y evolucionan, con el desarrollo de la sociedad digital, hacia laboratorios de mediación ciudadana e innovación social. En los últimos tiempos se ha producido una expansión de estos modelos en el contexto universitario, generando casos de gran interés para el desarrollo de nuevas métricas del impacto académico en la sociedad. El presente trabajo aborda, en primer lugar, el concepto, origen y desarrollo de los laboratorios sociales en España y globalmente, centrándose específicamente en el espacio universitario y en los medialabs. En segundo lugar, expone la problemática de las métricas alternativas del impacto social, aportando una propuesta de análisis basada en Twitter como herramienta para identificar los distintos tipos de públicos que muestran interés y el nivel de participación que despierta su actividad. Por último, se aplica este análisis al caso de Medialab UGR en la Universidad de Granada, un laboratorio de cultura digital enfocado en la cocreación y colaboración social. Los resultados muestran la pluralidad de actores vinculados a este tipo de redes, así como la dificultad y complejidad de establecer indicadores que concilien tanto intereses académicos como socialesSocial laboratories, defined as experimental spaces for co-creation, have recently become the main centers of innovation. Medialabs are experimental laboratories of technologies and communication media which have co-evolved along with the digital society into mediation laboratories of citizen experimentation, observing a confluence of both models. In recent years, these centers have expanded within the higher education context, generating new forms of innovation and posing the question of how to measure the impact of such open spaces. This paper analyzes the origin and development of social laboratories in Spain. It first reviews their historical development from their antecedents in the 19th Century to the most recent initiatives. It focuses specifically on initiatives launched within the university context, highlighting their role as motors of innovation. Then, it presents the case of Medialab UGR, a co-creation and digital culture center of social collaboration framed in the digital context. Finally, it offers a first approach towards the assessment of its social impact by using Twitter and analyzes its capacity to mobilize and reach non-academic audiences. The findings show the plurality of actors involved in this type of networks as well as the difficulty and complexity of the task for the development of indicators that can comprise both, academic and social interest

The time for bibliometric applications

Early view DOI: 10.1002/asi.23604This letter to the editor proposes the introduction of smartphones apps to develop new bibliometrics tools and products based on the success of the development of UGRinvestiga from the University of Granada

Journal impact measures: the Impact Factor

The seminar on impact measures will first shed light on the best known and most controversial indicator, namely Garfield’s Journal Impact Factor. Its strengths and weaknesses as well as its correct use will be discussed thoroughly. Moreover the corresponding analytical tool, Clarivate Analytics’s Journal Citation Reports will be demonstrated. Presented at the european summer school for scientometrics ESSS - July 16th, 2019 - Louvai

Societal Impact

Recently there is an increasing pressure on the development of indicators and methodologies that can offer evidences of the societal impact of researchers’ activity. This presentation will offer a comprehensive overview on the definition of societal impact, types of impact, and the attribution problem when searching for potential indicators. A special attention will be given to altmetric indicators and their potential role in tracing social engagement and its relation with societal impact. Examples of potential uses and current lines of work will be presented.European Summer School for Scientometric

A value creation model from science-society interconnections: Archetypal analysis combining publications, survey and altmetric data

The interplay between science and society takes place through a wide range of intertwined relationships and mutual influences that shape each other and facilitate continuous knowledge flows. Stylised consequentialist perspectives on valuable knowledge moving from public science to society in linear and recursive pathways, whilst informative, cannot fully capture the broad spectrum of value creation possibilities. As an alternative we experiment with an approach that gathers together diverse science-society interconnections and reciprocal research-related knowledge processes that can generate valorisation. Our approach to value creation attempts to incorporate multiple facets, directions and dynamics in which constellations of scientific and societal actors generate value from research. The paper develops a conceptual model based on a set of nine value components derived from four key research-related knowledge processes: production, translation, communication, and utilization. The paper conducts an exploratory empirical study to investigate whether a set of archetypes can be discerned among these components that structure science-society interconnections. We explore how such archetypes vary between major scientific fields. Each archetype is overlaid on a research topic map, with our results showing the distinctive topic areas that correspond to different archetypes. The paper finishes by discussing the significance and limitations of our results and the potential of both our model and our empirical approach for further research.Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (EXTRA project, grant CSO2013-48053-R)Oslo Institute for Research on the Impact of Science (OSIRIS, grant 256240)Ramo´n y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science (RYC2019- 027886-I

Bibliometric solutions for identifying potential collaborators

Bibliometric indicators and methodologies are commonly used for benchmarking institutions and individuals, and analyzing their research performance. Their potential for identifying partners and promoting collaboration is many times overseen by research institutions. In this presentation we will discuss different indicators and methodologies that can be used to spot institutions, research groups and individuals working on similar research fronts. By using different visualization techniques, we will provide examples on how to present these data in an appealing way which can inform university and research managers. These types of analyses are useful when searching for potential partners or designing strategies to establish scientific collaboration networks

Tratamiento lingüístico de las preguntas en español en los sistemas de búsqueda de respuestas / Linguistic treatment of questions in Spanish for question classification in question answering systems

We propose a procedure for the linguistic treatment of Spanish questions as a step prior to their classification in question answering systems. The main types of question answering systems and their basic architecture are described. We review the principal question classification taxonomies used to date and the different fields from which they have been derived. Finally, we present the stages of linguistic analysis that the text of questions in question answering systems should be subject to in order to facilitate the location of appropriate answers

Against magical thinking regarding bibliometrics

This work discusses the current debate between the use of qualitative approaches versus the use of quantitative indicators in research evaluation. It argues that too much importance is currently given to the methods and criteria employed in evaluation instead of discussing the most essential issue: the goal that evaluation pursues and how different research activities are valued. To finish, some design problems of the Spanish research evaluation system are highlighted because those problems act as a barrier towards a more contextualized and responsible evaluation system