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Science of Science

Commentary
What Is the Future of England's Research and Research Assessment?
Rapid technological developments, changes in public policy, and shifts in the international environment all affect academia. To help understand these effects, RAND researchers asked more than 3,600 academics in England how they expect their research to evolve over the next decade.
Nov 1, 2019
Research Brief
How Army Families Address Life's Challenges
A survey of more than 8,500 Army spouses examining their problem-solving processes found that the most common problems involved work-life balance, military practices and culture, and spouses' own well-being. Spouses most often wanted social support.
Oct 21, 2019
Commentary
Outputs of the Future
Are all types of research outputs of equal value? How do different outputs serve different purposes? Exploring these questions could benefit not only funders and universities, but also result in overall better use of research resources.
Oct 11, 2019
Report
The changing research landscape and reflections on national research assessment in the future
RAND Europe conducted a study to explore current and future changes in the research landscape (shifting environment, rapid technological developments and public policy) and how this may affect the nature of national research assessment (REF).
Oct 3, 2019
Essay
How Citizen Scientists Are Protecting Their Communities
After Superstorm Sandy, residents of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood cleaned up debris, pumped out basements, and teamed up with researchers to find out what was in the floodwater. They established safety protocols to help local businesses prevent their chemicals from escaping and wrote a guide to help other communities.
Aug 29, 2019
Periodical
RAND Review: September-October 2019
This issue spotlights a wargame designed for young women interested in national security; ethics in scientific research, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning; and community citizen science.
Aug 26, 2019
Commentary
Measuring Up: How to Ensure Peer Review for Grant Applications Remains Up to the Mark
Expert peer review is considered the gold standard for assessing the validity, significance and originality of research. When it comes to grant applications, however, peer review is not without its shortcomings. Addressing some of the challenges that peer review poses could ensure that the best research receives the financial support it deserves.
Jul 26, 2019
Blog
DMZ Meeting, Students with Disabilities, Iran: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on Trump's meeting with Kim Jong Un, supporting students with disabilities, the flawed logic of a proportional response in Iran, and more.
Jul 5, 2019
Commentary
Research Rigor Is Undermined by Translating Into Years of Learning
The research field increasingly recognizes that we need metrics that everyone can understand. Translating the result into years of learning has become a popular approach, but this metric has major flaws. There are better options.
Jul 5, 2019
Report
The Potential of Community Citizen Science
Community citizen science offers unique opportunities to engage the public in science and to enhance civic life. It is used for activities like monitoring ecosystem health and enhancing disaster preparedness. But there are challenges to translating citizen science research into action.
Jun 18, 2019
Report
Design and development of an evaluation framework for the NHMRC: Review of international practice, overview of NHMRC's data and grant management systems, and an evaluation framework and metrics
The aim of this study is to help NHMRC think about ways to assess and measure the impact of the changes to their restructured grant program in terms of burden, creativity and innovation, and equality of opportunity across career stages.
Jun 17, 2019
Blog
ISIS, Homelessness, India's Election: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on what can be done about ISIS detainees, a program that helps reduce homelessness, Modi's reelection in India, and more.
Jun 7, 2019
Report
Ethics in Scientific Research
An analysis of how ethics are created, monitored, and enforced finds which ethical principles are common across scientific disciplines, how these ethics might vary geographically, and how emerging topics are shaping future ethics.
Jun 5, 2019
Commentary
Assessing Confidence in 'What Works' in Social Policy
Policy decisions are increasingly informed (or expected to be informed) by research evidence. Making the process as systematic, transparent and explicit as possible provides users with ways to understand, question and contribute to the eventual policy recommendation, and gives policymakers and practitioners confidence in its credibility.
Mar 21, 2019
Commentary
How to Design a Research Funder
Emerging challenges are leading to an increased emphasis on the impact of research beyond academia. At the same time, funders must adapt to changing expectations about what research can and should deliver, financial austerity, and developments in the topics and methods of research.
Mar 11, 2019
Report
Organising for excellence: An international review of good practice in organisational design and governance of research funding bodies
RAND Europe was commissioned to review and synthesise evidence on organisational design and governance in order to help inform the design and structure of the new UK research funding body, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Feb 15, 2019
Research Brief
Understanding Researcher Mobility
This research brief sets out the results from a 2017 survey of researchers in the UK and a review of the literature around patterns, drivers and barriers, and benefits and consequences of international mobility for researchers.
Feb 7, 2019
Journal Article
Practical Guidance for Involving Stakeholders in Health Research
Stakeholder engagement is increasingly common in health research. But who should be involved, and in what way? And what difference will it make? Researchers can use frameworks to lay out a path for projects that engage multiple stakeholders.
Dec 27, 2018
Journal Article
Book Review of Understanding Cultural Traits: A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Cultural Diversity
In this book review I highlight the value of engagement between perspectives from the humanities that seek to improve conceptions of culture with perspectives from the sciences that seek to measure culture.
Dec 27, 2018
Report
Evidence synthesis on measuring the distribution of benefits of research and innovation
There are numerous benefits from R&I that are not well captured by current economic approaches. Investing in evaluation and methodological development could help develop a more holistic perspective on the benefits of R&I in the UK.
Dec 14, 2018

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RAND Topic:
Science of Science

Topic Synonyms:
Scientometrics

Researcher Spotlight

Monika Cooper

Senior Technical Analyst, Doctoral Candidate, Former Combatant Commands & NATO Liaison, RAND National Security Research Division (NSRD)

Monika Cooper (she/her) is a senior technical advisor at RAND Corporation in Arlington, VA, and previously served on the International Staff as a Communications, Command, Control, and Surveillance (C3S) life cycle expert for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium from…
Katie O'Brien

Analyst

Katie O'Brien is an analyst focusing on science and emerging technology at RAND Europe; she specialises in quantitative data analysis and data visualisation in R. O'Brien is in the final stages of her Ph.D., with her research focusing on analysis of population surveillance datasets in rural…

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