Networks in Science |
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. |
Collaborative Networks in Science |
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Women
in Science and Engineering:
Network Access, Participation, and
Career Outcomes
Funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant# REC-0529642)
Co-PIs: Dr. Julia Melkers, Dr. Eric Welch
Dates: 2005-2008
This multi-year project addresses the research question: How
and why do networks make a difference in the career outcomes
of women
in STEM careers? We define a network to be a web of formal and informal
relationships among members that allows the exchange of resources,
information, and activities. In the first part of the study, we will
collect and analyze survey data from a national random sample of
men and women in post doctoral, assistant professor, and associate
professor positions in six fields that vary by gender composition.
The analysis will focus on the relationships among network access,
network participation, and career outcomes. The research will carefully
define career outcomes in terms of traditional outputs and advancement,
but also in other terms such as satisfaction, recognizing that network
participation may lead to a complex mixture of benefits and costs.
The second phase of the project comprises a “critical mentor” analysis
designed to map and measure network structure and participation for
selected mentors and their mentees. We will collect qualitative and
quantitative data from mentor interviews, an in-depth survey of mentees,
citation indexes, and mentor curriculum vitae. Overall, this analysis
promises to elicit a deeper and more sophisticated understanding
of the network structures and behaviors that contribute to women’s
effective access to critical networks that affect career advancement
and success.
For more information on this project, visit the project
website.
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R&D Evaluation Using Network Analysis |
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Evaluation
of the Mid-America
Earthquake (MAE) Engineering Research Center
Funded by the MAE Center, a National
Science Foundation EERC
Co-PIs: Dr. Julia Melkers, Dr. Eric Welch
Dates: 2005-2008
The
purpose of this study is to conduct an evaluation of the Mid-America
Earthquake (MAE) Engineering Research Center. MAE is one of three
national earthquake engineering research centers established
by the National Science Foundation and its partner institutions
and is located in Champaign Illinois. MAE is engaged in core
earthquake research, research targeted at stakeholder use, as
well as education and outreach initiatives. Over 3.5 years, Professors
Melkers and Welch are using qualitative (case study & interview)
and quantitative (survey, bibliometric, and social network) methods
in order to capture both interim and longer-term outcomes of
MAE activities as well as address impacts on key
stakeholders, students, and other entities.
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Funded by the LIFE Center, a National
Science Foundation SLC
Co-PIs: Dr. Elizabeth Corley, Dr. Julia Melkers, Dr. Barry Bozeman,
Dr. Jan Youtie
Dates: 2005-2009
Funded
by the National Science Foundation and based at the University
of Washington and Stanford University, the mission of the LIFE
Science of Learning Center is “to understand and advance
human learning through a simultaneous focus on implicit, informal
and formal learning, thus cultivating generalizable interdisciplinary
theories that can guide the design of effective new technologies
and learning environments”. Together with colleagues
at Arizona
State University and Georgia
Tech University, Dr.
Melkers is conducting an evaluation of the research outcomes
of the LIFE Center. The team is specifically interested in
gains to research knowledge, preparation of new researchers,
and research capacity building.
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Electronic Government |
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Digital
Citizenship: The Internet, Society and Participation
Professor Mossberger is completing a co-authored manuscript with
Caroline Tolbert and Ramona McNeal on Digital Citizenship: The
Internet, Society, and Participation. “Digital citizenship,” is
the ability to participate in society online, and it facilitates
opportunities for knowledge, skills, and participation in the economic
and political spheres. This work builds on an earlier book, Virtual
Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide (Mossberger, Tolbert and
Stansbury, Georgetown University Press, 2003), which examined patterns
of inequality and the attitudes, needs, and experiences of those
left behind. Digital Citizenship extends this previous research
by showing the consequences that technology has for political and
economic participation, and by connecting these issues to citizenship
and equality of opportunity, beyond economic arguments about the
positive externalities of technology. |
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Diffusion and Impact of E-government
In a forthcoming article in Public Administration Review, Tolbert and Mossberger (2006) explore the effects of e-government use on citizen attitudes toward government more generally. Using two-stage models and Pew survey data, they find that there is a statistically significant relationship between trust in government and use of a local government website. In general, e-government users had positive assessments of all levels of government as being more transparent, responsive, or efficient. The findings are theoretically important for reconciling previous conflicting research on the effects of e-government, and for understanding variations by level of government.
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Environment |
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National Biosolids Management Study
Co-PIs: Dr. Eric Welch, Dr. Elizabeth Corley
Dates: 2006-present
This study explores environmental practices of public sewage and wastewater treatment facilities, particularly related to their management of biosolids products, especially as they relate to Environmental Management Systems (EMS). Specifically it seeks to understand: (1) the predictors of voluntary EMS adoption in the public sector, and (2) the effect that EMS adoption has on environmental management practices of public sewage and wastewater treatment facilities. The study will administer an online web survey of operations or environmental managers who have repsonsibility for the management of biosolids products for their facilities. A number of wastewater treatment facilities have voluntarily adopted an environmental management system (EMS) offered by the National Biosolids Partnership and other organziations. This study attempts to identify the motivations, barriers, costs and benefits of voluntary environmental activity conducted by public wastewater treatment facilities.
Prior research on voluntary environmental behavior of organizations has focused on private sector polluters. The adoption, development and deployment of one of the voluntary programs often studied in the private sector -- the environmental management systems (EMS) -- has received substantial attention, while other EMS programs targeted to the public sector have received no attention. Importantly, the theory developed to explain private sector voluntary behavior does not seem to fit public sector incentive environment. For example, much of the theory to date has focused on the importance of costs and benefits, market value, access to club goods, and regulatory influence. Public sector organizations are much less exposed to market incentives and much more exposed to a social and political incentives. As a result, we believe there are strong possibilities that the voluntary behavior of public sector entities will not easily fit existing behavioral theories.
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Assessing
Effectiveness of Alternative Fuel Vehicle Fleet Replacement
in Local Government
Co-PIs: Dr. Eric Welch, Dr. Jane Lin
Dates: 2004-present
Although
recent legislation and policy has encouraged the use of alternative
fuel vehicles in public fleets, full scale AFV adoption is
still a new phenomenon. Past studies have examined select aspects
of environmental impacts and purchase behavior for specific
types of AFVs, a simultaneous comparison of implementation
and effectiveness of different fuel types and engine technologies
within a single fleet over time has not been undertaken. This
project assesses the implementation and effectiveness of an
ongoing mandatory AFV fleet replacement policy in DuPage County
Forest Preserve (DCFP) in Illinois, which has adopted a self
mandate to entirely replace its fleet with AFVs over a 10 year
time span. The project is currently supporting three manuscripts:
(1) an examination of the environmental and economic costs
and benefits of at the half-way point of the policy implementation;
(2) an assessment of the internal knowledge development and
learning processes that take place when a public agency is
tasked with full scale adoption of new technology; and (3)
a study of AFV end user behavior. Findings will provide policy
makers with detailed dynamic understanding about the cost,
benefits, gains, losses, and lessons learned during the process
of fleet replacement.
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Other Projects |
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R&D
Investment and Economic Development
PI: Dr. Yonghong Wu
Dates: 2004-present
This
project explores how governments foster economic growth through
encouraging business investment in research and development (R&D)
by innovation policy actions. The conceptual framework is composed
of two interrelated processes. One deals with how internal and
external innovative outputs contribute to economic performance.
The other process focuses on the impact of government innovation
policies in stimulating business innovation efforts. As a major
step in implementing the framework, two pieces of research have
been completed. One of them examines the effectiveness of three
major national innovation policies (patent protection, R&D
tax incentives, and government R&D subsidies) on business
performed and financed R&D. The other one is an across-state
assessment on whether state level R&D tax incentives are
effective in stimulating additional industrial R&D expenditure
in U.S. states. The future research will explore policy-induced
R&D investment and innovation-based economic development
in a unified framework based on the existing datasets augmented
by some additional economic development measurements.
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