Composition of scientific teams and publication productivity

Abstract

The production of scientific knowledge has evolved from a process of inquiry largely based on the activities of individual scientists to one grounded in the collaborative efforts of highly specialized research teams, which have become an increasingly prominent means of knowledge production. This study examines data from 1,415 experiments conducted by scientific teams at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (NHMFL) to examine how the diversity of science teams along several key variables—including institutional diversity, disciplinary diversity, gender, seniority, and the network position—impacts overall team productivity as measured by peer reviewed journal publication. The results from correlation and quantile regression analysis indicate high productivity in teams is associated with high disciplinary diversity and low seniority diversity in team membership; team cohesion also positively related to productivity. Teams with members in central structural positions performed better than other teams. A better understanding of the factors that impact scientific teams, as determined by this and future research, may enable key stakeholders to facilitate more effective and efficient team operations and increase overall scientific productivity.

Research Output and Knowledge Translation Among Faculty Members of University of Technology, Jamaica

“…By incorporating different epistemologies and engaging in collaborative practices, research teams can address complex societal challenges more effectively [37]. Moreover [38] posited that the research teams are better in terms of output and citations compared to single-author researcher, with multi-authored publications being cited more frequently than single-authored publications ultimately increasing their research output. Research teams provide a supportive and collaborative environment that fosters creativity and innovation.…”

Observations of the lifecycles and information worlds of collaborative scientific teams at a national science lab

“…Building on our prior research applying social network and citation analysis to study the relationships between publication productivity, team diversity, and citation counts of teams [7,8,15,16], we conducted observations of scientific teams in action to gather a rich, descriptive picture of what actually happens while teams are conducting experiments at the NHMFL. This poster reports on the procedures we developed for conducting these observations, our quantitative and qualitative findings so far, and their implications for both scientists and scientific collaboration researchers.…”