Our paper “Author Team Diversity and the Impact of Scientific Publications” has now been accepted (after revisions) to the journal Library and Information Science Research. It reports quantitative findings on the quality and impact of Mag Lab publications and the relationship between seniority, affiliation, and impact in teams of co-authors. We have made a preprint available on our Publications page, and the article will be formally published later this year. We offer our thanks to the anonymous reviewers and the LISR journal editors for their comments and feedback as we revised our paper.

We presented two posters at the 2012 iConference in Toronto (February 7th – 11th). One reported our findings from our observations of teams conducting experiments at the Mag Lab, in light of lifecycles concepts and the theory of information worlds; this was led by graduate research assistant Adam Worrall and co-PI Paul Marty. Both the two-page abstract and the poster itself can be seen on our Publications page. We have also nearly finished writing a journal article focused on the observations, presenting our findings in detail and after further analysis; the paper also incorporates feedback and comments we received on our earlier poster. We plan to submit this paper to an interdisciplinary journal within the next few weeks. Many thanks to all of the teams of scientists we observed for letting us see what you were doing and how you collaborated!

The other poster we presented at the iConference reported findings from exploratory, preliminary interviews on data management and sharing practices at the Mag Lab and in condensed matter physics; we received excellent comments and feedback. These interviews were conducted and analyzed by senior personnel Chris Hinnant and co-PI Besiki Stvilia, with assistance from graduate research assistant Shuheng Wu. This poster and its two-page abstract can also be seen via our Publications page. The findings from these interviews and feedback we received on the poster are informing the development of a survey on Mag Lab staff and visitors’ perceptions of data management and sharing practices, lifecycles, and metadata needs. We plan to collect data using this survey within the next three months, and hope you will all be willing to participate and help us with our research!

We have finished our observations of Mag Lab scientists, staff, and visitors, and coding of these is now also complete; analysis continues. A poster reporting preliminary findings from our observations has been accepted to the 2012 iConference in Toronto, Canada this coming February, and we will post it to this site once the conference is over. Our continuing, in-depth analysis of these findings in context of information worlds and lifecycles is being worked into a paper, led (as our observations were) by co-PI Paul Marty and graduate research assistant Adam Worrall, which we will be submitting to an interdisciplinary journal within the next three months. We are also continuing to work on revisions to our paper reporting quantitative findings on the quality and impact of Mag Lab publications and the relationship between seniority, affiliation, and impact. Senior personnel Chris Hinnant, lead author on this paper, will submit our revisions to the journal shortly.

We obtained a six month no-cost extension from the NSF for our current project, which we will be putting towards finishing our coding and analysis of interviews. We are also working on two new grant proposals (one to NSF, one to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS) to allow us to continue our research and explore further the relationship between team lifecycles (the focus of the current project) and data lifecycles. A second poster reporting on exploratory, preliminary interviews on the lifecycle and quality of data at the Mag Lab—conducted by co-PI Besiki Stvilia, senior personnel Chris Hinnant, and graduate research assistant Shuheng Wu—was also accepted to the 2012 iConference. We hope to expand upon this work if our new grant proposals are accepted.

Finally, we would like to thank all of our undergraduate and graduate interns who have helped us with our project during the last 16 months: Ryan Huff, Jessica Roberts, Aprille Case, Wilhelmina Randtke, Lauren Lachowsky, Andrea Haranki, and Brian Knop. Without their help we would not have been able to complete our observations, interviews, and coding and analysis. We’d also like to thank the Mag Lab scientists, staff, and users who allowed us to observe their experiments in progress and interview them about their work. We believe we have many interesting findings and look forward to sharing them here. We hope everyone had a happy and healthy holiday season and wish you a great beginning to the new year!

Since the last update we have made much progress, and our quantitative analysis continues. Led by senior personnel Chris Hinnant and co-PI Besiki Stvilia, we submitted a paper based on our analysis of the quality and impact of Mag Lab publications and the relationships between seniority, affiliation, and impact. After incorporating peer reviewer feedback we have now resubmitted this paper for review. This analysis and our observations and interviews have also informed qualitative interviews by Hinnant, Stvilia, and research assistant Shuheng Wu exploring the management, curation, quality, and lifecycle of data at the Magnet Lab, from which they intend to develop a survey on these topics for wider distribution.

The research team also continues to conduct interviews and observations at the Mag Lab. We have completed over 58 hours of observations and over 10 interviews with Mag Lab scientists, users, and students. Our observations have been led by co-PI Paul Marty, with the assistance of research assistant Adam Worrall and our graduate and undergraduate interns. PI Kathy Burnett and co-PI Michelle Kazmer conduct our interviews, with the note-taking and transcribing assistance of our interns and research assistants. We continue to analyze both the observations and interviews according to our codebook, drawing upon the theory of information worlds (co-developed by co-PI Gary Burnett), lifecycles concepts, and scientific collaboration research.

The team has been able to build a collaborative relationship with the staff at the NHMFL, which allows us to gather quality data. We thank everyone who has participated in interviews, consented to observations, and/or helped our project in other ways so far!

Researchers at Florida State University’s College of Communication and Information have received funding from the National Science Foundation to study the lifecycles of scientific teams conducting experiments at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (the “Mag Lab”). We are looking for up to four student interns for the Fall 2011 semester who are interested in learning more about how scientists work and how social scientists conduct research to determine how scientists work. Interns will work closely with the researchers to arrange, conduct, and analyze observations and interviews with teams in action at the Mag Lab.

Applications are welcome from students regardless of major or disciplinary background. Interns will receive academic credit for assisting the researchers. A commitment of 10 hours per week for one semester is expected for 3 credit hours.

To learn more about the research project, please see: http://voss.cci.fsu.edu. If you have questions or wish to apply, please e-mail Dr. Kathy Burnett (kburnett@fsu.edu). Be sure to include your full name and contact information (phone and email) in your email so that we can get in touch with you to schedule an interview. Include a brief statement regarding your interest in the project, and let us know what experience or coursework you have that will make you a good candidate for the internship. If you have a resume, please include it as an attachment. We look forward to hearing from you!

Our major focus during the last two months has been interviewing members of teams who have conducted work at the Mag Lab. PI Kathy Burnett and co-PI Michelle Kazmer continue to conduct interviews with scientists, students, and Mag Lab staff, with the scheduling assistance of graduate intern Wilhelmina Randtke. All of our undergraduate and graduate interns and research assistants are providing assistance in transcribing interviews and taking notes during each session. If we contact you with a request for an interview, we would greatly appreciate your participation and help with our research on collaboration by teams at the Mag Lab, and thank you in advance for your enthusiasm and willingness to be interviewed!

We have also continued to observe teams working at the Mag Lab, under the direction of co-PI Paul Marty and graduate research assistant Adam Worrall and with help from our undergraduate and graduate interns. The observations have shifted purpose to help inform our interview process, with sessions focusing on teams we are interested in interviewing. Analysis of these observations and the interviews is also continuing, with most faculty and student members of the team involved in coding within the framework of our study: the theory of information worlds, team lifecycles, types of communicative activity, and types of research.

Our senior undergraduate intern, Jessica Roberts, attended the international Science of Team Science (SciTS) conference in Chicago with senior personnel Chris Hinnant in April, presenting our project to the audience there. We received good feedback from the conference that we will be able to incorporate into our continuing work, and were able to spread the word further about our ongoing research. Jessica has now graduated; we thank her greatly for her excellent work with the project, congratulate her on her graduation, and wish her luck in graduate school at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro!

Finally, our external evaluator, Ken Fleischmann from the University of Maryland, visited us in April, extensively discussing our project and our progress so far with all faculty and students on the research team. He provided substantial feedback to us during his time here and is hard at work writing an evaluation report on our progress, which we look forward to receiving soon.

As always, we thank everyone who has aided us with our project so far, be it with quantitative data collection, observations, interviews, or otherwise. We welcome questions, comments, and feedback from anyone who might be interested in our project; please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us directly using the information at the bottom left of this page.

Observations of teams working at the Mag Lab have continued, led by co-PI Paul Marty, graduate research assistant Adam Worrall and our senior undergraduate intern Jessica Roberts. Our three new interns, Aprille Case, Lauren Lachowsky, and Wilhelmina Randtke have joined the team in conducting these observations, coding data, and assisting in interviews. Although we are continuing observations through the semester, our most recent priority has become interviewing members of teams that have conducted work at the Mag Lab. PI Kathy Burnett and co-PI Michelle Kazmer have begun interviews with the undergraduate interns providing notes and transcripts of the sessions. As in our previous update, if you are asked to participate in an interview, we would greatly appreciate your help with our research on collaboration at the Mag Lab, and thank you in advance for your enthusiasm and willingness to be interviewed! We also thank those of you who have already aided us with our project, either by helping us obtain data for the quantitative analyses or by allowing us to observe you in action at the Mag Lab.

Chris Hinnant, accompanied by Jessica Roberts, will be participating in a panel on Distributed Collaboration and Virtual Teams at the second annual International SciTS Conference. The four-day Science of Team Science conference will be held in Chicago, Illinois this April.

Also in April, we have scheduled our spring  evaluation visit with our external evaluator, Ken Fleischmann from the University of Maryland, and we look forward to the feedback and comments we receive from him at this meeting.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, or feedback about the project, our Web site, or our progress, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us directly using the information at the bottom left of this page.

Applications are welcome from students regardless of major or disciplinary background. Interns will receive academic credit for assisting the researchers. A commitment of 10 hours per week for one semester is expected for 3 credit hours.

To learn more about the research project, please see: http://voss.cci.fsu.edu. If you have questions or wish to apply, please contact Drs. Paul Marty (marty@fsu.edu) or Kathy Burnett (kburnett@fsu.edu). Be sure to include your full name and contact information (phone and email) in your email so that we can get in touch with you to schedule an interview. Include a brief statement regarding your interest in the project, and let us know what experience or coursework you have that will make you a good candidate for the internship. If you have a resume, please include it as an attachment. We look forward to hearing from you!

Our work on a second quantitative analysis, led by senior personnel Chris Hinnant and assisted by co-PI Stvilia and graduate research assistant Katy Schindler, is also progressing, examining the quality and impact of Mag Lab team publications and the relationships between seniority, affiliation, and impact. Our work in progress was presented in our poster at the Association for Library and Information Science Education’s 2011 annual conference in San Diego, CA earlier this month, also available on our Publications page.

Observations of teams working at the Mag Lab have continued, led by co-PI Paul Marty and graduate research assistant Adam Worrall. Our two undergraduate interns during the fall semester, Ryan Huff and Jessica Roberts, have helped us greatly with these; Ryan has now graduated, but Jessica will be continuing with us in the spring. We have also hired three new interns to help us with observations and interviews for the spring semester; their photos and bios will appear on our People page shortly. Coding of our observation data has also begun, with the team ensuring we all share the same understanding of what and how to code.

Our major focus for the beginning of the spring semester will be interviewing members of teams that have conducted work at the Mag Lab. These will be led by PI Kathy Burnett and co-PI Michelle Kazmer, with the additional aid of our undergraduate interns. We have selected an initial set of teams to ask to interview and are in the process of contacting these. If you are asked to participate in an interview, we would greatly appreciate your help with our research on collaboration at the Mag Lab, and thank you in advance for your enthusiasm and willingness to be interviewed! We also thank those of you who have already aided us with our project, either by helping us obtain data for the quantitative analyses or by allowing us to observe you in action at the Mag Lab. As always, if you have any questions, comments, or feedback about the project, our Web site, or our progress, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us directly using the information at the bottom left of this page.

Researchers at Florida State University’s College of Communication and Information have received funding from the National Science Foundation to study the lifecycles of scientific teams conducting experiments at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (the “Mag Lab”). We are looking for up to four student interns for the spring semester who are interested in learning more about how scientists work and how social scientists conduct research to determine how scientists work. Interns will work closely with the researchers to conduct and analyze observations and interviews with teams in action at the Mag Lab.

Applications are welcome from students regardless of major or disciplinary background. Interns will receive academic credit for assisting the researchers. A commitment of 10 hours per week for one semester is expected for 3 credit hours.

To learn more about the research project, please see: http://voss.cci.fsu.edu. If you have questions or wish to apply, please contact Drs. Paul Marty (marty@fsu.edu) or Kathy Burnett (kburnett@fsu.edu). Be sure to include your full name and contact information (phone and email) in your email so that we can get in touch with you to schedule an interview. Include a brief statement regarding your interest in the project, and let us know what experience or coursework you have that will make you a good candidate for the internship. If you have a resume, please include it as an attachment. We look forward to hearing from you!

We submitted a poster proposal for the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 2010 conference taking place later this month, which was accepted for the conference’s poster session. This poster will also discuss our findings from the quantitative analysis of the relations between team composition and productivity, as well as our future plans in this area. The panel proposal we previously submitted for the ASIST 2010 conference was also approved. It will consist of researchers from four NSF-funded VOSS projects at Syracuse University, Penn State University, the University of Arkansas, and Florida State University. This proposal was led by co-PI Gary Burnett, who will serve as moderator of the panel. We expect our PI Kathy Burnett, most of the co-PIs, and graduate research assistant Adam Worrall will be attending the conference.

Observations of teams working at the Mag Lab are now in progress. Co-PI Paul Marty and graduate research assistant Worrall have created, with feedback from the team, two observation forms to assist in and guide the observation process. We have, in addition, recruited and trained two undergraduate interns, Ryan Huff and Jessica Roberts, to aid in observations and interviews. Having completed their observation and safety training, they are now helping with these observations in earnest. The team has also finalized interview questions, and pilot interviews will be conducted shortly by PI Kathy Burnett and co-PI Michelle Kazmer, with the additional aid of our two interns. Finally, the qualitative coding of the observations and interviews is beginning in parallel with the observations; development of the coding scheme is ongoing.

As ever, we greatly appreciate the help of those who have aided us with our project, and hope those of you who we approach to observe or interview in the near future are similarly willing and enthusiastic about helping us with our research! If you have any questions, comments, or feedback about the project, our Web site, or our progress, please feel free to leave a comment below or contact us directly using the information at the bottom left of this page.