EAGER: Assessing the Impact of Technology-Aided Participation and Mentoring on Transformative Interdisciplinary Research

“评估技术辅助参与和指导对变革性跨学科研究的影响：一个基于数据的激励和成功的范例学术网络的研究”使用计算分析，数据提取和社交网络分析，开始对网络基础设施和学术交流的相互作用进行第一次大规模研究。 研究的典范虚拟机构是人文，艺术，科学和技术高级合作实验室（HASTAC或“干草堆”），一个由9000多名教育工作者组成的网络，致力于创新，技术辅助形式的合作研究和教学。 HASTAC成立于2002年，现总部设在杜克大学，拥有博士学位。数字知识实验室目前每月增加200-300名新成员。 该研究调动了六年来广泛的HASTAC数据库，包括个人和机构成员简介的176 MB MySQL数据库，用于社交网络分析，数据提取，文本和内容分析以及程序和组织分析。 它提供了急需的证据，证明机构目前和未来的能力，以支持应对重大挑战所必需的跨学科合作（如能源、水的可持续性或人文科学和政策设计），特别是那些需要与人文主义者和社会科学家合作的科学家之间的合作，这些科学家受过培训，能够面对阻碍科学实施的社会和文化因素，鉴于HASTAC作为一个虚拟组织的独特跨学科性质，以及这是对其广泛的，可访问的，匿名的“干净”个人和机构数据（在Drupal数据库中）的首次探索性研究，这是EAGER设计的一项变革性，高影响力的早期研究。 因为这项研究的一个重点是522名在校生和最近的校友（80%的研究生，20%的本科生）在63个学科和部门的小额奖学金，从120多个支持机构，该研究还将测试假设，网络跨学科的年轻学者比更传统的同行，这也是第一次与EAGER的变革性知识的使命相称，具有最大影响的潜力。该项目的智力价值包括模拟一种方法，通过这种方法，网络基础设施可以成功地进行合作研究适用于其他基于问题的研究中心和可扩展到其他项目，如学习中心（SLC）的NSF资助的科学;确定风险承担早期职业跨学科研究的最佳激励措施;并计算出自愿程度，学术网络和虚拟指导支持和促进早期研究人员在学术创新和高，这项研究的更广泛影响是解决了高等教育中最紧迫的结构性问题之一，也是一个几乎没有定量数据研究的问题：如何激励和支持跨学科研究人员的范围，他们必须成功地共同努力，以解决社会？s最大的问题。 在其最广泛的，预计该研究将介入组织行为，社会媒体协议，学科和跨学科的形成，和自治系统的当前理论，并为致力于解决主要问题和21世纪世纪的大挑战增加合作奠定基础。

"Assessing the Impact of Technology-Aided Participation and Mentoring on Transformative Interdisciplinary Research: A Data-Based Study of the Incentives and Success of an Exemplar Academic Network" uses computational analysis, data extraction, and social networking analysis to embark on the first large-scale study of the interplay of cyberinfrastructure and scholarly communication in an academic peer-produced network. The exemplar virtual institution studied is the Humanities, Arts, Sciences and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC or "haystack"), a network of over 9000 educators dedicated to innovative, technology-aided forms of collaborative research and teaching. Formed in 2002, HASTAC, now headquartered at Duke University in the Ph.D. Lab in Digital Knowledge, is currently adding 200-300 new members a month. The study mobilizes six years of the extensive HASTAC data pool, including the 176MB MySQL database of individual and institutional member profiles, for social networking analysis, data extraction, text and content analysis, and procedural and organizational analysis. It provides critically needed evidence for the current and future capacities of institutions to support the interdisciplinary collaborations essential to meet the Grand Challenges (such as energy, water sustainability, or human sciences and policy design) confronting the world, especially those requiring collaboration among scientists working with humanists and social scientists trained to confront the societal and cultural factors that deter the implementation of scientific and technological solutions.Given the unique interdisciplinary nature of HASTAC as a virtual organization and the fact that this is a first, exploratory study of its extensive, accessible, anonymized "clean" individual and institutional data (in a Drupal database), this is a transformative, high-impact early-stage study for which EAGER was designed. Because one focus of the study is the 522 current students and recent alumni (80% graduate, 20% undergraduate) in 63 disciplines and departments on small scholarships from over 120 supporting institutions, the study will also test the hypothesis that networked interdisciplinary young scholars outcompete more traditional peers, another first commensurate with the EAGER mission of transformative knowledge with the potential for maximum impact.The intellectual merits of the project include modeling a method by which cyberfrastructure can enable successful collaborative research adaptable to other problem-based research centers and scalable to other projects, such as NSF-funded Science of Learning Centers (SLC); determining the best incentives for risk-taking early career interdisciplinary research; and calculating how voluntary, scholarly networking and virtual mentoring support and promote early-stage researchers in both scholarly innovation and high-prestige academic achievement.The broader impact of the study is in addressing one of the most urgent structural problems in higher education and one on which there is little quantitative, data-based research: how to incentivize and support the range of cross-disciplinary researchers who must work together successfully in order to solve society?s biggest problems. At its broadest, it is anticipated that the study will intervene in current theories of organizational behavior, social media protocols, disciplinary and interdisciplinary formation, and self-governing systems, and lay the groundwork for increased collaborations dedicated to tackling the major problems and Grand Challenges of the 21st century.