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BARRIERS TO SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION AT A UNIVERSITYTherese Kennelly Okraku and Christopher McCarty
University of Florida
Society for Applied Anthropology
April 1, 2016
Acknowledgments
Research reported in this presentation was supported by the
University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute,
which is supported in part by the NIH National Center for
Advancing Translational Sciences under award number
UL1TR001427. The content is solely the responsibility of the
authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of
the National Institutes of Health.
Research Problem
4.534.37
4.74.53
4.72 4.75 4.815.05
4.71
0
1
2
3
4
5
Agricultural and Life Sciences
Dentistry Education Engineering Public Health and
Health Professions
Liberal Arts and
Sciences
Medicine Pharmacy Veterinary Medicine
Ideal Level of Collaboration
3.77
3.44
4.053.92
4.24.38
3.85
4.38
3.55
0
1
2
3
4
5
Agricultural and Life Sciences
Dentistry Education Engineering Public Health and Health Professions
Liberal Arts and Sciences
Medicine Pharmacy Veterinary Medicine
Current Level of Collaboration
Most researchers, institutions, and funding agents want more scientific
collaboration to occur, but there are many barriers
Research Questions
What are the barriers to collaboration at a university?
How do these barriers vary by college?
How does a research university’s organizational culture (at
the university, college, and discipline level) shape scientific
collaborations?
Methods
Online survey of researchers
(n=914)Survey
Social network analysis using
grant data from 2010-
2015 (Degree centrality)
Network Analysis
Semi-structured interviews
(n=18)
Interviews
Informal conversations with faculty
and attending meetings
Participant Observation
Research Site
Literature Review
• Geographical distance (Olson and Olson 2001)Proximity
• Interpersonal conflict and lack of recognition (Sonnenwald 1995)Communication
• Time management (Montoya-Weiss et al. 2001)Scheduling
• Finding necessary space and support (Pagato et al. 2007)Logistical
• Institutional, National, and International (Axelsson and Axelsson 2009)Regulatory
• Grant funding or internal funding issues (Beaver 2001)Financial • Differences in training, methods, expectations, and previous experiences (Allen-Meares
and Pugach 1982)Disciplinary
…but what about organizational culture?
Proximity
Communication
Scheduling
Logistical
Regulatory
Financial
Disciplinary
Barriers to Collaboration
I do not feel that collaboration would be productive.
Attitudes Towards Collaboration
Collaboration is discouraged in my department.
Barriers to Collaboration
Attitudes Towards Collaboration
I have difficulty in identifying likely collaborators.
Barriers to Collaboration
What other barriers to collaboration (if any)
have you encountered? (n=336)
Text Analysis
Network Analysis of Overlapping
Responses
Institutional and Administrative Regulations
Financial
Geographical
InterpersonalDisciplinary
“Time constraints- too much time dealing with email
and administrative paperwork instead of research”
(CTSI User, Medicine)
“Undue burden of UF administrative processes and
regulations; untrustworthy administration that does not
trust faculty; administration-driven intellectual agenda
instead of support for faculty research initiatives.” (Non-
CTSI User, Engineering)
Administrative
“Boundaries that exist between colleges (e.g., COM and
PH) making it difficult to optimize certain programs”
(CTSI User, Medicine)
“Re-investment into research. I have contributed an
enormous amount of IDCs to UF with very little
returned to promote research.” (Non-CTSI User,
Medicine)
Institutional
“Lack of interest in my focus, and lack of credit for input
I give to others' research grants or projects”
(CTSI User, Medicine)
“Lack of communication between departments and
between researchers. People tend to stay in silos”
(Non-CTSI User, Dentistry)
Interpersonal
“I can’t find a statistician who focus on cancer epidemiology who
does want money up front. We get paid when we get funded. CTSI
needs to be funded from only indirect monies as then they would
focus on getting people funded. They would feel the same pressure
that researcher do.” (CTSI User, College of Medicine)
“Finding the right funding opportunities to fit with the research
interests of collaborators. Some funding opportunities are available,
but often do not mesh with the current research interests and
direction of the individual collaborators.”
(Non-CTSI User, College of Design, Construction, and Planning)
Financial
“Cultural barriers in terms of different expectations and
attitudes towards work”
(CTSI User, College of Medicine)
“The differential emphasis placed on single-authored
articles/books in the humanities, and on grant funding in
the social/behavioral/biomedical sciences makes it
difficult to collaborate. The university sets us up to
pursue different goals.”
(Non-CTSI User, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences)
Disciplinary
Insights from Interviews
• Difficult to find new collaborators
• More likely to work with those close to themProximity
• Communication failures (“I thought you meant” vs “I forgot”)
• Mixed messages from the UniversityCommunication • Limited time and different personalities
• Lack of recognition for efforts (“I felt used”)Interpersonal• Mixed messages from the university
• Hiring practices and tenureInstitution• IRB and Research Administration and Compliance (RAC)
• Difficult to collaborate across colleges or beyond universityRegulatory
• Difficult funding climateFinancial • Different research goals
• Language barrierDisciplinary
Key Findings
Most barriers to scientific collaboration are shaped by
organizational level regulations and practices.
Organizational culture (at the university, college, and
department level) plays a major role in shaping scientific
collaboration practices as well as attitudes towards team
science.
Ethnographic studies of collaboration culture at universities
can help to assess how to address organizational level barriers
to scientific collaboration and better recognize team science.
SuggestionsReducing barriers to research and scientific collaboration requires a real
commitment on the part a university’s administration to recognize, value,
and prioritize collaboration.
Some specific suggestions include:• Facilitate open conversations between faculty members and administrators about research barriers to
generate mutually acceptable solutions
• Broaden existing T&P criteria to better recognize the role that collaboration plays in contemporary
science
• Set clear expectations for faculty members (when they first enter the university) specifying how their
college evaluates collaboration and the research outputs (co-authored publications, co-investigator status
on grants, etc.) that they or their team collectively produce
• Provide additional mentoring for junior faculty members to help them minimize research barriers, choose
better collaborative projects/collaborators, negotiate for their individual interests within their research
group, and produce research outputs that will be recognized by their department/college
References
Allen-Meares, Paul, and Marleen Pugach. "Facilitating Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Behalf of Handicapped Children and Youth." Teacher Education and
Special Education 5, no. 1 (1982): 30-36.
Axelsson, Susanna Bihari, and Runo Axelsson. "From territoriality to altruism in interprofessional collaboration and leadership." Journal of Interprofessional Care
23, no. 4 (2009): 320-330.
Beaver, Donald DeB. "Reflections on scientific collaboration (and its study): past, present, and future." Scientometrics 52, no. 3 (2001): 365-377.
Montoya-Weiss, Mitzi M., Anne P. Massey, and Michael Song. "Getting it together: Temporal coordination and conflict management in global virtual teams."
Academy of management Journal 44, no. 6 (2001): 1251-1262.
Olson, Gary M., and Judith S. Olson. 2000. “Distance matters.” Human-Computer Interaction 15, no. 2:139-178.
Pagoto, Sherry L., Bonnie Spring, Elliot J. Coups, Shelagh Mulvaney, Marie‐France Coutu, and Gozde Ozakinci. "Barriers and facilitators of evidence‐based
practice perceived by behavioral science health professionals." Journal of clinical psychology 63, no. 7 (2007): 695-705.
Sonnenwald, Diane H. "Scientific collaboration." Annual review of information science and technology 41, no. 1 (2007): 643-681.
Sonnenwald, Diane H. "Contested collaboration: A descriptive model of intergroup communication in information system design." Information Processing &
Management 31, no. 6 (1995): 859-877.
Questions?Therese Kennelly Okraku and Christopher McCarty
University of Florida
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