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

《评估技术辅助的参与和指导对变革性跨学科研究的影响：示范学术网络的激励和成功的基于数据的研究》利用计算分析、数据提取和社交网络分析，开始了第一个大规模研究，即在学术同行产生的网络中，网络基础设施和学术交流的相互作用。所研究的示范虚拟机构是人文、艺术、科学和技术高级合作实验室(HASTAC或“干草堆”)，这是一个由9000多名教育工作者组成的网络，致力于创新的、技术辅助的合作研究和教学形式。HASTAC成立于2002年，现在总部设在杜克大学的数字知识博士实验室，目前每月增加200-300名新成员。这项研究调动了HASTAC六年来广泛的数据库，包括176MB的MySQL个人和机构成员档案数据库，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。它为机构当前和未来支持跨学科合作的能力提供了迫切需要的证据，这些跨学科合作对于应对世界面临的重大挑战(如能源、水的可持续性或人文科学和政策设计)至关重要，特别是那些需要科学家与人文主义者和社会科学家合作的机构，这些科学家与人文主义者和社会科学家合作，以应对阻碍科学和技术解决方案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“干净的”个人和机构数据(在Drupal数据库中)的首次探索性研究，这是一项革命性的工作，高影响力的早期研究，EIGER是为之设计的。由于这项研究的一个焦点是来自120多个支持机构的63个学科和系的522名在校生和最近的校友(80%是毕业生，20%是本科生)，他们获得了来自120多个支持机构的小额奖学金，所以这项研究还将检验这样一种假设，即联网的跨学科年轻学者比更传统的同龄人更具竞争力，另一种假设与具有最大影响的变革知识的迫切使命相称。该项目的智力价值包括：建立一种方法，通过这种方法，网络框架可以使成功的协作研究适应于其他基于问题的研究中心，并可扩展到其他项目，如NSF资助的学习科学中心(SLC)；确定对冒险的早期职业生涯跨学科研究的最佳激励；以及计算自愿、学术网络和虚拟导师如何在学术创新和高声望的学术成就方面支持和促进早期研究人员。这项研究的更广泛影响在于解决高等教育中最紧迫的结构性问题之一，这个问题几乎没有基于数据的定量研究：如何激励和支持一系列必须成功合作才能解决社会的跨学科研究人员？S是最大的问题。最广泛地说，预计这项研究将介入当前关于组织行为、社交媒体协议、学科和跨学科形成以及自治系统的理论，并为加强合作奠定基础，致力于解决21世纪的主要问题和重大挑战。

"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.