Identifying Emerging Research Collaborations and Networks Method Development

• Published in: Evaluation & the health professions Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 19 - 32
• Main Authors: Dozier, Ann M., Martina, Camille A., O’Dell, Nicole L., Fogg, Thomas T., Lurie, Stephen J., Rubinstein, Eric P., Pearson, Thomas A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2014; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Academic Medical Centers - manpower; Academic Medical Centers - organization & administration; Collaboration; Community Networks - organization & administration; Cooperative Behavior; Data Collection - methods; Electronic Mail; Faculty, Medical; Feasibility; Humans; Interdisciplinary Communication; Interdisciplinary team work; Leadership; National Institutes of Health (U.S.); Professors; Promotion; Research methodology; Research Personnel; Research Support as Topic; Social networks; Social Support; Translational Medical Research - manpower; Translational Medical Research - organization & administration; United States; United States; team science; data collection methods; research collaboration; clinical and translational science; social network analysis
• ISSN: 0163-2787; 1552-3918
• DOI: 10.1177/0163278713501693

Clinical and translational research is a multidisciplinary, collaborative team process. To evaluate this process, we developed a method to document emerging research networks and collaborations in our medical center to describe their productivity and viability over time. Using an e-mail survey, sent to 1,620 clinical and basic science full- and part-time faculty members, respondents identified their research collaborators. Initial analyses, using Pajek software, assessed the feasibility of using social network analysis (SNA) methods with these data. Nearly 400 respondents identified 1,594 collaborators across 28 medical center departments resulting in 309 networks with 5 or more collaborators. This low-burden approach yielded a rich data set useful for evaluation using SNA to: (a) assess networks at several levels of the organization, including intrapersonal (individuals), interpersonal (social), organizational/institutional leadership (tenure and promotion), and physical/environmental (spatial proximity) and (b) link with other data to assess the evolution of these networks.