BARRIERS TO SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION AT A UNIVERSITYTherese Kennelly Okraku and Christopher McCarty

University of Florida

Society for Applied Anthropology

April 1, 2016

Acknowledgments

Research reported in this presentation was supported by the

University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute,

which is supported in part by the NIH National Center for

Advancing Translational Sciences under award number

UL1TR001427. The content is solely the responsibility of the

authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of

the National Institutes of Health.

Research Problem

4.534.37

4.74.53

4.72 4.75 4.815.05

4.71

0

1

2

3

4

5

Agricultural and Life Sciences

Dentistry Education Engineering Public Health and

Health Professions

Liberal Arts and

Sciences

Medicine Pharmacy Veterinary Medicine

Ideal Level of Collaboration

3.77

3.44

4.053.92

4.24.38

3.85

4.38

3.55

0

1

2

3

4

5

Agricultural and Life Sciences

Dentistry Education Engineering Public Health and Health Professions

Liberal Arts and Sciences

Medicine Pharmacy Veterinary Medicine

Current Level of Collaboration

Most researchers, institutions, and funding agents want more scientific

collaboration to occur, but there are many barriers

Research Questions

What are the barriers to collaboration at a university?

How do these barriers vary by college?

How does a research university’s organizational culture (at

the university, college, and discipline level) shape scientific

collaborations?

Methods

Online survey of researchers

(n=914)Survey

Social network analysis using

grant data from 2010-

2015 (Degree centrality)

Network Analysis

Semi-structured interviews

(n=18)

Interviews

Informal conversations with faculty

and attending meetings

Participant Observation

Research Site

Literature Review

• Geographical distance (Olson and Olson 2001)Proximity

• Interpersonal conflict and lack of recognition (Sonnenwald 1995)Communication

• Time management (Montoya-Weiss et al. 2001)Scheduling

• Finding necessary space and support (Pagato et al. 2007)Logistical

• Institutional, National, and International (Axelsson and Axelsson 2009)Regulatory

• Grant funding or internal funding issues (Beaver 2001)Financial • Differences in training, methods, expectations, and previous experiences (Allen-Meares

and Pugach 1982)Disciplinary

…but what about organizational culture?

Proximity

Communication

Scheduling

Logistical

Regulatory

Financial

Disciplinary

Barriers to Collaboration

I do not feel that collaboration would be productive.

Attitudes Towards Collaboration

Collaboration is discouraged in my department.

Barriers to Collaboration

Attitudes Towards Collaboration

I have difficulty in identifying likely collaborators.

Barriers to Collaboration

What other barriers to collaboration (if any)

have you encountered? (n=336)

Text Analysis

Network Analysis of Overlapping

Responses

Institutional and Administrative Regulations

Financial

Geographical

InterpersonalDisciplinary

“Time constraints- too much time dealing with email

and administrative paperwork instead of research”

(CTSI User, Medicine)

“Undue burden of UF administrative processes and

regulations; untrustworthy administration that does not

trust faculty; administration-driven intellectual agenda

instead of support for faculty research initiatives.” (Non-

CTSI User, Engineering)

Administrative

“Boundaries that exist between colleges (e.g., COM and

PH) making it difficult to optimize certain programs”

(CTSI User, Medicine)

“Re-investment into research. I have contributed an

enormous amount of IDCs to UF with very little

returned to promote research.” (Non-CTSI User,

Medicine)

Institutional

“Lack of interest in my focus, and lack of credit for input

I give to others' research grants or projects”

(CTSI User, Medicine)

“Lack of communication between departments and

between researchers. People tend to stay in silos”

(Non-CTSI User, Dentistry)

Interpersonal

“I can’t find a statistician who focus on cancer epidemiology who

does want money up front. We get paid when we get funded. CTSI

needs to be funded from only indirect monies as then they would

focus on getting people funded. They would feel the same pressure

that researcher do.” (CTSI User, College of Medicine)

“Finding the right funding opportunities to fit with the research

interests of collaborators. Some funding opportunities are available,

but often do not mesh with the current research interests and

direction of the individual collaborators.”

(Non-CTSI User, College of Design, Construction, and Planning)

Financial

“Cultural barriers in terms of different expectations and

attitudes towards work”

(CTSI User, College of Medicine)

“The differential emphasis placed on single-authored

articles/books in the humanities, and on grant funding in

the social/behavioral/biomedical sciences makes it

difficult to collaborate. The university sets us up to

pursue different goals.”

(Non-CTSI User, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences)

Disciplinary

Insights from Interviews

• Difficult to find new collaborators

• More likely to work with those close to themProximity

• Communication failures (“I thought you meant” vs “I forgot”)

• Mixed messages from the UniversityCommunication • Limited time and different personalities

• Lack of recognition for efforts (“I felt used”)Interpersonal• Mixed messages from the university

• Hiring practices and tenureInstitution• IRB and Research Administration and Compliance (RAC)

• Difficult to collaborate across colleges or beyond universityRegulatory

• Difficult funding climateFinancial • Different research goals

• Language barrierDisciplinary

Key Findings

Most barriers to scientific collaboration are shaped by

organizational level regulations and practices.

Organizational culture (at the university, college, and

department level) plays a major role in shaping scientific

collaboration practices as well as attitudes towards team

science.

Ethnographic studies of collaboration culture at universities

can help to assess how to address organizational level barriers

to scientific collaboration and better recognize team science.

SuggestionsReducing barriers to research and scientific collaboration requires a real

commitment on the part a university’s administration to recognize, value,

and prioritize collaboration.

Some specific suggestions include:• Facilitate open conversations between faculty members and administrators about research barriers to

generate mutually acceptable solutions

• Broaden existing T&P criteria to better recognize the role that collaboration plays in contemporary

science

• Set clear expectations for faculty members (when they first enter the university) specifying how their

college evaluates collaboration and the research outputs (co-authored publications, co-investigator status

on grants, etc.) that they or their team collectively produce

• Provide additional mentoring for junior faculty members to help them minimize research barriers, choose

better collaborative projects/collaborators, negotiate for their individual interests within their research

group, and produce research outputs that will be recognized by their department/college

References

Allen-Meares, Paul, and Marleen Pugach. "Facilitating Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Behalf of Handicapped Children and Youth." Teacher Education and

Special Education 5, no. 1 (1982): 30-36.

Axelsson, Susanna Bihari, and Runo Axelsson. "From territoriality to altruism in interprofessional collaboration and leadership." Journal of Interprofessional Care

23, no. 4 (2009): 320-330.

Beaver, Donald DeB. "Reflections on scientific collaboration (and its study): past, present, and future." Scientometrics 52, no. 3 (2001): 365-377.

Montoya-Weiss, Mitzi M., Anne P. Massey, and Michael Song. "Getting it together: Temporal coordination and conflict management in global virtual teams."

Academy of management Journal 44, no. 6 (2001): 1251-1262.

Olson, Gary M., and Judith S. Olson. 2000. “Distance matters.” Human-Computer Interaction 15, no. 2:139-178.

Pagoto, Sherry L., Bonnie Spring, Elliot J. Coups, Shelagh Mulvaney, Marie‐France Coutu, and Gozde Ozakinci. "Barriers and facilitators of evidence‐based

practice perceived by behavioral science health professionals." Journal of clinical psychology 63, no. 7 (2007): 695-705.

Sonnenwald, Diane H. "Scientific collaboration." Annual review of information science and technology 41, no. 1 (2007): 643-681.

Sonnenwald, Diane H. "Contested collaboration: A descriptive model of intergroup communication in information system design." Information Processing &

Management 31, no. 6 (1995): 859-877.

Questions?Therese Kennelly Okraku and Christopher McCarty

University of Florida