Science, Technology, and Environment Policy Lab

S&T Networks

Science and the flow of scientific knowledge occur within a set of networks among scientists and institutions. Researchers often collaborate with colleagues who are disciplinariliy diverse and may work in other sectors or countries. Knowledege produced during the process of scientific discovery is often dispersed widely, but has traditionally been captured using bibliometric analysis of publication and citation data. That research has done much to improve the understanding about the characteristics of science networks and the conduct of science.

More recently, the adpatation of social network methods has been effectively used at the micro-level, in the evaluation of center-based research, as well as in exploring the collaborative ties that link individuals and groups of individuals. While network data drawn from social network methods can be useful to delineate fields of research, individual-level data drawn from surveys can capture activity and knowledge exchange that precede tangible collaboration outputs such as publications and grants.

The STE Policy Lab conducts network based evaluations of NSF Centers and also applies network analysis to research on the development and evolution of scientific networks and the contributions that network dynamics have on science outcomes and on scientists careers.

Networks of Women in Science Julia Melkers and Eric Welch have been awarded $1.2 million for the National Science Foundation to study the role of social and research networks for women in science and engineering. The three year study uses a national survey, interviews, publications and other institutional data to study the formation, characteristics and network participation in the fields of biology, chemistry, computer science, earth and atomospheric sociences, electrical engineering and physics. Please see the project website for more information.	APPAM Conference 2006 In November 2006 researchers at ST&E Policy Lab presented a total of nine papers at the annual Association for Public Policy and Management (APPAM) conference. Over half of these papers were presented by doctoral students in the S&T program in Graduate Program in Public Administration. Please see the working papers for a selection of the APPAM abstracts for a description of these papers.
HICSS 2007 Eric Welch and co-author Sanjay Pandey received the best paper award for e-government at the annual Hawaian International Conference on Systems Sciences (HICSS) held in January 2007. Their paper entitled "Multiple Measures of Website Effectiveness and their Effect on Service Quality in Health and Human Service Agencies " appears in the IEEE conference proceedings. Eric is also primary co-chair of the 2007 E-Democracy minitrack for this conference.	TRB 2007 PhD Student Nilay Yavuz presented a paper entitled "Individual and Neighborhood Determinants of Perceptions of Bus and Train Safety in Chicago: An Application of Hierarchical Linear Modeling" to at the 2007 Transportation Research Board Conference in Washington DC. Ms. Yavuz is a research assistant on the Chicago Tranportation Agency Project which is co-led by Eric Welch and housed in the Urban Transportation Center. Please see the abstract for the paper with has been accepted for publication at the Transportation Research Board Journal .
New Book on Electronic Democracy Forthcoming from MIT Press: Digital Citizenship The Internet, Society, and Particpation, by Karen Mossberger and co-authors. The book presents analysis on how the ability to particpate in society online affects political and economic opportunity. Findings indicate that technology matters in terms of wages, income, civic participation and voting.	New Faculty Member In August 2007 Mary Feeney joined the Public Administration Faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mary's research interests include non-profit organizations, public management, and Science and Technology. Mary's dissertation research, conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology, examines mentoring processes and outcomes in public and non-profit organizations.