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With enrollment hovering at 13,885 as of fall 2023, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) is the largest historically Black university in the country. With roots dating […]

This collaborative and reflective inquiry-based paper critically examines accessibility within the research realm. We focus this inquiry on the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion and specifically address the challenges of establishing accessibility as part of the research enterprise. We acknowledge and reflect on the pivotal role accessibility for persons with disabilities play in an equitable research enterprise and reflect on how nuances in language, behavior, and power dynamics all play a role in creating inclusive environments. This reflective inquiry is a result of a facilitated workshop that took place at a conference attended by professionals working within research administration. Using an inquiry-based workshop approach, facilitators worked with workshop colleagues to discuss, regardless of job title, an ability to influence and shape a more inclusive and accessible system at all levels. Our desired outcomes of this workshop were to collate the collective experiences of our colleagues to uncover barriers and facilitators related to accessibility and to support and learn from our colleagues around ways to create an accessible environment that is a norm. What we find is that accessibility impacts everyone in some way, but it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Collaboration and communication strategies present possible support pathways to more accessible environments. Keywords: accessibility, inclusion, emotional intelligence, INTRODUCTION The Canadian Conference on Research Administration (hosted by the Canadian Association of Research Administration, or CARA for short) offers an opportunity to exchange knowledge and develop professionally in relevant [...]

Sigma Xi awarded 58 student research grants for the spring 2024 cycle of its Grants in Aid of Research (GIAR) program. Since 1922, the Society's GIAR program has been funding [...]

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the research output and status of women academics in science fields in Jordan. The rationale is to identify trends as well as challenges to advise policy makers and university administrators on how to promote more involvement of women academics within the university. A survey of two sections was developed. The first section included 36 items that measure demographics and challenges in academic, research, administrative, and family contexts. The second section included questions regarding motivators and barriers to academic research. Participants were prompted to respond per the Likert's Scale, where the responses were later categorized to a dichotomous variable (e.g., yes/no responses). The tools' reliability and validity were tested in a pilot study conducted among 36 participants as well as from feedback from experts in the field. A description of the profile of women scientists in Jordan is presented. There was no significant difference between married and unmarried academics and their responses regarding opportunities and challenges faced in research. Additionally, there was no significant difference in responses between those who are married to academics and those married to non-academics. Furthermore, the t-test showed that those who expressed dissatisfaction with promotion rules in their universities significantly expressed facing more challenges than those satisfied with promotion regulations. This is the first comprehensive study investigating women academics in Jordan in specific and in the Middle East region in general. Whereas previous research in the literature focused on comparing women academics' progress and achievements with that of men academics, the novelty of this study lies in investigating sub-populations of women academics and identifying factors that affect academic achievement among women themselves. The article also offers suggestions for tailored intervention to improve the professional growth of women scientists in Jordan. Keywords: Academia, Jordanian women, Scientific research, Promotion, Introduction Many women choose academia as a career because they simply find themselves in it. Others choose it for its flexibility and high job security which helps in relieving the [...]

Para garantizar la comunicación global y la visibilidad de sus investigaciones, los grupos de investigación internacionales hacen uso de entornos digitales y recurren a prácticas académicas específicas en la red. Twitter como medio social con fines de diseminación de la investigación se ha convertido en un modo eficaz para difundir ampliamente el desarrollo de los proyectos, la producción de conocimiento y los resultados de las investigaciones. Para ello, los grupos de investigación hacen uso de estrategias pragmáticas que responden a tres intenciones comunicativas generales--informativa, promocional e interactive--, así como de marcadores metadiscursivos dentro de estas para establecer vínculos con la audiencia. El artículo analiza estas prácticas centrándose en la realización metadiscursiva de una taxonomía de veintisiete estrategias pragmáticas obtenidas del análisis de diez cuentas de Twitter de proyectos Horizonte2020. En primer lugar, proponemos algunos ajustes metadiscursivos para su aplicación al análisis de tuits. A continuación, identificamos los rasgos metadiscursivos más destacados que instancian las estrategias pragmáticas utilizando NVivo12. En general, los rasgos metadiscursivos interaccionales predominan sobre los interactivos, siendo los marcadores de actitud, las automenciones y los imperativos los más característicos en las estrategias informativas, promocionales e interaccionales, respectivamente. Además, se observa que algunas categorías metadiscursivas se realizan a través de marcadores no verbales. Este análisis contribuye a la comprensión de las complejas prácticas discursivas digitales de los investigadores para difundir sus resultados, dar cuenta de su financiación, hacerse visibles y atraer a múltiples audiencias. Palabras clave: Twitter; redes sociales para fines de diseminación de la investigación; tuits académicos; discurso en el ámbito de la investigación; estrategias pragmáticas; marco del metadiscurso To ensure the global communication and visibility of their work, international research groups leverage online settings and endorse specific digital academic practices. Twitter as a Social Medium for Research Dissemination Purposes has become an effective outlet to widely disseminate the development, knowledge production and findings of research projects. As a result, research groups implement pragmatic strategies that respond to three overarching communicative intentions--informative, promotional and interactional--and use metadiscursive markers within them to establish links with the audience. This paper analyses these practices by investigating the metadiscoursal realisations of a taxonomy of twenty-seven data-driven pragmatic strategies in ten Horizon2020 research project Twitter accounts. First, we propose metadiscursive adjustments for the digital environment of Twitter. Then, we use NVivo12 to identify salient metadiscourse features which help to realise the pragmatic strategies. In general, interactional metadiscursive features predominate over interactive ones, and we find attitude markers, self-mentions and directives to be the characteristic markers in, respectively, informative, promotional and interactional strategies. Moreover, some metadiscourse categories are found to rely on non-verbal markers for their realisation. The present analysis expands the understanding of complex digital discursive practices developed by researchers aiming to disseminate their results, account for their funding, make themselves visible and engage multiple audiences. Keywords: Twitter; Social Media for Research Dissemination Purposes; academic tweets; scholarly discourse; pragmatic strategies; metadiscourse framework, Metadiscoursal Realisation of Pragmatic Strategies @ResearchProject Twitter Accounts I. INTRODUCTION Researchers are increasingly encouraged by their affiliates and by external institutions to foster the global dissemination of their knowledge production [...]

Since 2013, Mississippi State University has sponsored undergraduate research experiences that allow motivated, academically strong students to participate in collaborative research with faculty mentors. This study surveyed past program participants (n=274) to determine if undergraduate research improves student participants? science literacy, enhances retention of students in science careers, and leads to discovery of new information. Survey respondents (n=74, n=45 complete surveys) indicated participation in undergraduate research programs increased self-assessed proficiency on 22 measures of science and professional readiness, increased recruitment into science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) graduate degree programs by 18%, and led to discovery of new knowledge that was reported in an average of 1.7 professional presentations and 0.2 peer-reviewed scientific publications per student. KEYWORDS:, INTRODUCTION Undergraduate research (UR) is increasingly prevalent as a component of undergraduate degree programs in the United States. Across disciplines and institutions, undergraduate research experiences vary greatly and may include [...]

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 5 I. ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE BACKGROUND 13 A. China and the EEA 16 B. China's Thousand Talents Program 19 C. The DOJ's China Initiative 21 D. Protecting [...], In 2018 the U.S. government announced that Chinese espionage was occurring in university research labs, and the Department of Justice subsequently made it a high priority to prosecute economic espionage in academia. The DOJ's grave concerns about espionage in academia have continued, and the Director of the FBI has lamented that American taxpayers are footing the bill for China's technological development. This geopolitical concern about espionage has had real world and personal consequences in academia. Since 2019, over a dozen high-profile criminal prosecutions have put prominent professors at major research universities across the country in handcuffs and almost all the professors have been convicted of a crime. Yet, my investigation and analysis of these cases reveals much ambiguity about the very concept of academic economic espionage. Most telling, although labelled as spies, not one of the professors was actually charged with economic espionage. Unlike in the corporate arena, there are fundamental questions surrounding the feasibility of prosecuting espionage in the university context. I theorize that this is because academia is grounded not in a culture of ownership, but of openness and sharing. Accordingly, this Article posits that while there is no de jure exceptionalism for universities when it comes to espionage, there may be de facto exceptionalism due to the lack of a proprietary culture that is typically at the heart of espionage cases. The academic prosecutions and other signals suggest that may be shifting, however, as the legal structure and larger incentives are directed toward greater recognition of proprietary interests in academia.

This research pioneered the investigation of the statistically predictive power of academics' research agendas for their organizational commitment-beyond age, gender, academic rank, and academic discipline. Three hundred and thirty-two academics from nine research-oriented comprehensive universities in Zhejiang province and Shanghai, mainland China, responded to the Multi-Dimensional Research Agendas Inventory-12 Items (MDRAI-12) and the Organizational Commitment Inventory. Three main findings were obtained. First, the MDRAI-12 was confirmed to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing the research agendas of academics in mainland China. Second, both academics' research agendas and their organizational commitment varied as a function of demographics. Third and most importantly, when age, gender, academic rank, and academic discipline were put under control, three of the four trailblazing research agendas (scientific ambition, collaboration, and discovery) predicted the three adaptive organizational commitments (affective, normative, and ideal), whereas the two cohesive research agendas (convergence and conservative) chiefly contributed to the two maladaptive organizational commitments (economic and choice). These findings have shed new light on the literature concerning research agendas and that on organizational commitment. At the same time, the findings have practical implications for university academics and senior managers in their respective efforts to promote innovative research and adaptive organizational commitment among academics., Author(s): Li-fang Zhang [sup.1] , Zhengli Xie [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.194645.b, 0000000121742757, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, , Hong Kong, People's [...]

Female faculty remain a minority in academic research and women are often perceived to lack the qualities needed to be successful scientists, which may contribute to discrimination and prejudice against female researchers. Research administrators play a pivotal role in the development of strategic, catalytic, and capacity-building activities designed to encourage faculty in attracting extramural research funding. The purpose of this investigation was to explore whether research administrators evaluate extramural grant applicants differently based on gender and different career ranks. Contrary to previous research examining faculty gender biases and stereotypes, our study showed that applicants were rated similarly in researcher competence across both male and female applicants by research administrators (Hypothesis 1). Our research also showed that female candidates were generally seen as more likeable (researcher collegiality) and were rated higher for mentoring potential than male candidates (Hypothesis 2). Furthermore, consistent with prior research, findings suggest that those in the senior career rank were more highly rated for research competence and skill (Hypothesis 3). Although we did not list a formal hypothesis, our findings did support the notion that senior career rank applicants are more highly rated for biosketch design and comprehension, most likely due to their perceived competence and advanced experience. These findings, while preliminary, suggest that traditional barriers related to perceived female researcher competence are not experienced as they interact with research administrators. The main implication of this study is that research administrators do not appear to significantly contribute to the previously reported discrimination and prejudice against the competence of female researchers. Keywords: gender bias; academic researchers; faculty productivity; research administrators; female faculty; gender disparities; academic stereotypes, INTRODUCTION The percentage of women in academic science has increased dramatically during the past several decades (Abelson et al., 2016). Despite this success, female faculty remain a minority in academic [...]