Assessing research network and disciplinary engagement changes induced by an NSF program

• DOI: 10.1093/reseval/rvs004
• Publication Date: 2012-03-09T01:33:56Z
• Authors: J. G. Garner; A. L. Porter; N. C. Newman; T. A. Crowl
• Keywords: 05 social sciences; 0509 other social sciences

To assess the success of the National Science Foundation's Research Coordination Network (RCN) program, a set of publication measures and visualization tools were used to determine how effective the program is in enhancing interdisciplinary publication and information sharing. The publication patterns of a set of researchers were compared before and after receiving RCN awards. These analyses show significant increases in basic collaboration measures--authors per paper and institutions per paper--following RCN support. Various indications suggest increased linkage among the RCN researchers in terms of extent of co-authoring and of cross-citing each other's work. RCN support appears to foster more interdisciplinary research. Diffusion scores (a new metric) showed that the diversity of articles citing RCN-related articles was similar to those citing control group research. Finally, the articles generated by the project activities showed as especially influential; they appear in high impact journals and are more highly cited. Copyright The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: [e-mail], Oxford University Press.