scholarly journals Introducing and testing an advanced quantitative methodological approach for the evaluation of research centers: a case study on sustainability science

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Kassab ◽  
Rüdiger Mutz ◽  
Hans-Dieter Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Research Evaluation ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Evaluation Approach ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Global University

Abstract With the growing complexity of societal and scientific problems, research centers have emerged to facilitate the conduct of research beyond disciplinary and institutional boundaries. While they have become firmly established in the global university landscape, research centers raise some critical questions for research evaluation. Existing evaluation approaches designed to assess universities, departments, projects, or individual researchers fail to capture some of the core characteristics of research centers and their participants, including the diversity of the involved researchers, at what point in time they join and leave the research center, or the intensity of their participation. In addressing these aspects, this article introduces an advanced approach for the ex post evaluation of research centers. It builds on a quasi-experimental within-group design, bibliometric analyses, and multilevel statistics to assess average and individual causal effects of research center affiliation on participants along three dimensions of research performance. The evaluation approach is tested with archival data from a center in the field of sustainability science. Against a widely held belief, we find that participation in research centers entails no disadvantages for researchers as far as their research performance is concerned. However, individual trajectories varied strongly.

scholarly journals Does public outreach impede research performance? Exploring the ‘researcher’s dilemma’ in a sustainability research center

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 710-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Kassab
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Career Advancement ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Public Outreach ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
Broad Consensus

Abstract Researchers and universities are increasingly urged to communicate their findings to the general public. Despite the broad consensus about the necessity of this task, researchers are still reluctant to engage in public outreach activities. One major reason is that while being somewhat time consuming, engagement in public outreach is not adequately reflected in the metrics that are relevant for career advancement. The study at hand examines to what extent this dilemma is empirically justified. A series of statistical analyses are carried out on the basis of data from a sustainability science research center in Switzerland. The study comes to the conclusion that research performance is overall positively associated to engagement in public outreach activities. This insight has implications for the academic incentive and evaluation system.

scholarly journals Can altmetrics reflect societal impact considerations?: Exploring the potential of altmetrics in the context of a sustainability science research center

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar Kassab ◽  
Lutz Bornmann ◽  
Robin Haunschild
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Expert Panel ◽  
Research Evaluation ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Societal Impact ◽  
Publicly Funded ◽  
Ex Ante

Societal impact considerations play an increasingly important role in research evaluation. In particular, in the context of publicly funded research, proposal templates commonly include sections to outline strategies for achieving broader impact. Both the assessment of the strategies and the later evaluation of their success are associated with challenges in their own right. Ever since their introduction, altmetrics have been discussed as a remedy for assessing the societal impact of research output. On the basis of data from a research center in Switzerland, this study explores their potential for this purpose. The study is based on the papers (and the corresponding metrics) published by about 200 either accepted or rejected applicants for funding by the Competence Center Environment and Sustainability (CCES). The results of the study seem to indicate that altmetrics are not suitable for reflecting the societal impact of research that was considered: The metrics do not correlate with the ex ante considerations of an expert panel.

A long-term study of children with autism playing with a robotic pet

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 324-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothée François ◽  
Stuart Powell ◽  
Kerstin Dautenhahn
Keyword(s):  
Play Therapy ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Robot Assisted ◽  
Term Study ◽  
Long Term Study

This paper presents a novel methodological approach of how to design, conduct and analyse robot-assisted play. This approach is inspired by nondirective play therapy. The experimenter participates in the experiments, but the child remains the main leader for play. Besides, beyond inspiration from non-directive play therapy, this approach enables the experimenter to regulate the interaction under specific conditions in order to guide the child or ask her questions about reasoning or affect related to the robot. This approach has been tested in a long-term study with six children with autism in a school setting. An autonomous robot with zoomorphic, dog-like appearance was used in the studies. The children’s progress was analyzed according to three dimensions, namely, Play, Reasoning and Affect. Results from the case-study evaluations have shown the capability of the method to meet each child’s needs and abilities. Children who mainly played solitarily progressively experienced basic imitation games with the experimenter. Children who proactively played socially progressively experienced higher levels of play and constructed more reasoning related to the robot. They also expressed some interest in the robot, including, on occasion, affect. Keywords: Human–Robot Interaction, Robot-Mediated Therapy, Robot-Assisted Play, Non-Directive Play Therapy, Assistive Technology, Autism, Children

Systematic exploration of scenario spaces

foresight ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Carlsen ◽  
E. Anders Eriksson ◽  
Karl Henrik Dreborg ◽  
Bengt Johansson ◽  
Örjan Bodin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Climate Change Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Generating Sets ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Systematic Exploration ◽  
Emissions Scenarios ◽  
Business As Usual

Purpose – Scenarios have become a vital methodological approach in business as well as in public policy. When scenarios are used to guide analysis and decision-making, the aim is typically robustness and in this context we argue that two main problems at scenario set level is conservatism, i.e. all scenarios are close to a perceived business-as-usual trajectory and lack of balance in the sense of arbitrarily mixing some conservative and some extreme scenarios. The purpose of this paper is to address these shortcomings by proposing a methodology for generating sets of scenarios which are in a mathematical sense maximally diverse. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, we develop a systematic methodology, Scenario Diversity Analysis (SDA), which addresses the problems of broad span vs conservatism and imbalance. From a given set of variables with associated states, SDA generates scenario sets where the scenarios are in a quantifiable sense maximally different and therefore best span the whole set of feasible scenarios. Findings – The usefulness of the methodology is exemplified by applying it to sets of storylines of the emissions scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This ex-post analysis shows that the storylines were not maximally diverse and given the challenges ahead with regard to emissions reduction and adaptation planning, we argue that it is important to strive for diversity when developing scenario sets for climate change research. Originality/value – The proposed methodology adds significant novel features to the field of systematic scenario generation, especially with regard to scenario diversity. The methodology also enables the combination of systematics with the distinct future logics of good intuitive logics scenarios.

scholarly journals Sustainable Equilibrium Index (SEI): A Measure to Analyze the Systemic Dependences in Territorial Development

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
Jonatan Paton ◽  
Jaime Del Castillo ◽  
Belen Barroeta
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Sustainable Growth ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Territorial Development ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Regional Gap ◽  
Sustainable Equilibrium ◽  
Do So

<p><em>Regional prosperity not only depends on economic issues but also in social and environmental aspects. Achieving a sustainable growth path in the long term implies “coherence” in the advancement of these three dimensions (avoiding potential imbalances threatening that path). Here the notion of “sustainable” competitiveness arises. In this context, the objective of this paper is to demonstrate, through a quantitative methodology, that the coherence of economic, social and environmental dimensions is in fact at the core of regional prosperity and regional gap. To do so, the paper analyses the systemic interdependencies between these three fields using a quantitative methodological approach: the Sustainable Equilibrium Index (SEI). The results include the overall estimates for the SEI in each Spanish region as well as a detailed decomposition of the index by economic, social and environmental fields. Finally, recommendations are made to consider SEI as a metric for the upcoming RIS3 strategies.</em></p>

scholarly journals Consequences of COVID-19 on my experiment of gene overexpression in beans

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salma Sarai González-Meléndez
Keyword(s):  
Subcellular Location ◽  
Confocal Microscope ◽  
The Other ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Gene Overexpression ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Experimental Phase ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
At Home

<p>My name is Salma Meléndez and I am currently a graduate in Agrogenomic Sciences. In March 2020, when COVID-19 was detected in Mexico, I was in my eighth semester of my undergraduate degree. At that time, he had an experiment of overexpression of a gene in bean roots, in order to explore its function during symbiosis with rhizobial bacteria. Unfortunately, the laboratory and the entire campus canceled their face-to-face activities in order to reduce the risk of contagion. An alternative was to take the experimental plants to my house to give the proper care, however, the situation became difficult as I did not have the space or the required conditions at home. On the other hand, other research centers with which we had collaboration agreements also canceled access, such is the case of the Optical Research Center, where we used the confocal microscope to detect subcellular location of proteins. The closure of institutions allowed me to write theoretical parts of my thesis, however, the experimental phase was definitely affected for at least six months. The experiment with the plants was almost completely lost. In the subsequent months I had the opportunity to re-enter my institution; however, under strict conditions and on staggered days, which made certain measurements that require daily continuity difficult. Currently, the laboratory is not as it used to look, full of colleagues sharing results and difficulties, exchanging advice and even certain materials. I think the pandemic has pushed us to do our work more individually and slowly. Consequently, my degree was delayed and transferred from 2020 to 2021. There are still many challenges to overcome, although activities have not been fully restored, science does not stop and we have found a way to face it, slowly but surely.</p>

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