This paper summarizes preliminary results from a project studying how the organizational and cognitive features of research carried out in a Large Scale Research Facility (LSRF) affect scientific impact. The study is based on exhaustive bibliometric mapping of the scientific publications of the Neutron Science Department of Oak Ridge National Laboratories in 2006- 2009. Given the collaborative nature of research carried out at LSRFs, it is important to understand how its organization affects scientific impact. Diversity of teams along the institutional and cognitive dimensions affects both opportunities for combination of knowledge and coordination costs. The way specific collaborative configurations strike this trade-offs between these opportunities and costs have notable effects on research performance. The findings of the paper show that i.) scientists combining affiliations to both the facility and to an external university of research laboratory (secondments) out-perform all other types of institutional affiliations. ii.) Teams spanning multiple institutional types have the lowest performance. This is the case whether or not teams include resident scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratories. iii.) Knowledge integration at the level of individual scientists clearly outperforms team level integration. iv.) Team diversity is associated with stronger performance in basic research than in applied research. Implications for the organisation of research collaboration of LSRFs and for their skill structures are discussed.

Research based on New Big Science: Patterns of impact and some of their origins

LAUTO, Giancarlo;
2014-01-01

Abstract

This paper summarizes preliminary results from a project studying how the organizational and cognitive features of research carried out in a Large Scale Research Facility (LSRF) affect scientific impact. The study is based on exhaustive bibliometric mapping of the scientific publications of the Neutron Science Department of Oak Ridge National Laboratories in 2006- 2009. Given the collaborative nature of research carried out at LSRFs, it is important to understand how its organization affects scientific impact. Diversity of teams along the institutional and cognitive dimensions affects both opportunities for combination of knowledge and coordination costs. The way specific collaborative configurations strike this trade-offs between these opportunities and costs have notable effects on research performance. The findings of the paper show that i.) scientists combining affiliations to both the facility and to an external university of research laboratory (secondments) out-perform all other types of institutional affiliations. ii.) Teams spanning multiple institutional types have the lowest performance. This is the case whether or not teams include resident scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratories. iii.) Knowledge integration at the level of individual scientists clearly outperforms team level integration. iv.) Team diversity is associated with stronger performance in basic research than in applied research. Implications for the organisation of research collaboration of LSRFs and for their skill structures are discussed.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11390/1035782
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