Category Archives: US Science Agencies

NOAA’s proposed move raises questions about its role

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Alexander Mosiak

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has a slogan that captures its odd position in the federal hierarchy: “NOAA may be the most important agency you’ve never heard of.” That contradiction was on full display earlier this month, when President … Continue reading →

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Assessing the Value of Team Science: A Study Comparing Center-and Investigator Initiated Grants – Team Science Toolkit

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

The [initial] lag in productivity among the transdisciplinary center grants was offset by their overall higher publication rates and average number of coauthors per publication, relative to investigator-initiated grants, over the 10-year comparison period. The fındings suggest that transdisciplinary center … Continue reading →

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NSB report on merit review “lacks teeth” with regard to enforcing Broader Impacts Criterion

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

At least according to a quote from Luis Echegoyen included here: Clarifying Review Criteria | January 16, 2012 Issue – Vol. 90 Issue 3 | Chemical & Engineering News.

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Scientists Ought to Take an Entrepreneurial Attitude toward Broader Impacts

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled. This is the definition of entrepreneurship the article linked below discusses as the best ever. I agree that it’s excellent as definitions go. Let me suggest that adopting … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, NSF, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 1 Comment

NSF “clarifies” Broader Impacts « Gas station without pumps

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

After reading the report (the body, not the hundreds of pages of appendices), I’m at least as confused as I was before about what the h*** NSF expects for Broader Impacts. (Gas station without pumps, hereafter GSWOP) What is revealed … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, NSF, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 1 Comment

NSF Tweaks Its Merit Review Rules – ScienceInsider

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

Jeffrey Mervis on NSB’s decision and report on NSF’s merit review criteria. Still digesting the report, which is quite substantial. But it looks as if NSB and the Task Force on Merit Review did a bang-up job. Highlights include: Retaining … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Metrics, NSF, Peer Review, STEM Policy, Transformative Research, US Science Agencies | Leave a comment

Research Bought, Then Paid For – NYTimes.com

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

Catchy title for an argument against the Research Works Act. Research Bought, Then Paid For – NYTimes.com.

Posted in Accountability, NIH, Open Access, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | Leave a comment

Does open access really threaten peer review?

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

Here, I mean peer review in the sense of pre-publication review by experts in a relevant field of manuscripts submitted for publication in scholarly journals. Peer review, in this sense, has been the backbone of scholarly publishing at least since … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Metrics, NIH, Open Access, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 2 Comments

The Association of American Publishers endorses Research Works Act

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

The Association of American Publishers endorses the Research Works Act. I want to explore their argument a bit here. First, their characterization of H.R. 3699: The legislation [the Research Works Act] is aimed at preventing regulatory interference with private-sector research … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, NIH, Open Access, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 1 Comment

America COMPETES | Department of Commerce

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

Pretty slick website. Just found it and haven’t explored it, yet. America COMPETES | Department of Commerce.

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Research Works Act is an anti-entrepreneurial bill

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

A bill has been introduced by Representative Darrell Issa — H.R. 3699 — in order “To ensure the continued publication and integrity of peer-reviewed research works by the private sector.” The Research Works Act would outlaw open access policies, such … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, Libraries, NIH, Open Access, Peer Review, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 5 Comments

Blue-sky bias should be brought down to Earth : Nature News & Comment

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Britt Holbrook

Daniel Sarewitz’s latest column in Nature dispels the myth that applied research will always drive out basic research. Blue-sky bias should be brought down to Earth : Nature News & Comment. Perhaps it is not just the basic science funding … Continue reading →

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Nature News Blog: NSF takes broad look at broader impacts

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Britt Holbrook

Well done, NSB! Legislation passed by Congress in 2010 confirmed the importance of broader impacts, and also tried to be more specific, listing some of the activities that would count as having societal benefit. But when the task force’s May … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Broader Impacts, Metrics, NSF, Peer Review, STEM Policy | 1 Comment

Reputable Scientists & Journalists Blow a Major Science Story

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

It’s well known that tropospheric warming causes stratospheric cooling, but somehow the BBC, Guardian, and New York Times don’t seem to know that: A huge hole that appeared in the Earth’s protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Environmental policy, NASA, Open Access, Peer Review, Public Pedagogy, Public Philosophizing, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | 4 Comments

NSF – Changing the Conduct of Science in the Information Age

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Britt Holbrook

Just got wind of a new report that looks pretty interesting. NSF – OD – OISE – Changing the Conduct of Science in the Information Age

Posted in Future of the University, Libraries, Metrics, NSF, Open Access, STEM Policy, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

NSF issues new merit review criteria

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Robert Frodeman

At http://nsf.gov/nsb/publications/2011/06_mrtf.jsp. We are writing a Science Progress post on it this weekend.

Posted in Interdisciplinarity, NSF, Peer Review | Leave a comment

Coburn puts NSF ‘under the microscope’

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Britt Holbrook

US Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) recently released a report that takes issue with some NSF practices — including funding the social sciences. David Bruggeman has an interesting discussion of the report here.

Posted in Accountability, Metrics, NSF, STEM Policy | 1 Comment

Industrial Medical Technoscience

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Keith Brown

Deborah Rhodes: A tool that finds 3x more breast tumors, and why it’s not available to you | Video on TED.com. Very interesting lecture that opens up some intriguing questions concerning how the technoscience progress machine, or Westernizing Transnational economics, … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Economics & STEM Research, NIH, Public Philosophizing, TechnoScience & Technoscientism | Leave a comment

Peer Review: a personal history

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Robert Frodeman

I’ve been working on questions surrounding peer review for a number of years. But only recently have I started to figure out what I’ve gotten myself into. The story begins with the National Science Foundation. NSF changed its peer (or … Continue reading →

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Innovation You Can Count On™

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

The rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corporation to launch NASA’s Glory satellite worked for three minutes this morning. Then it crashed into the Southern Pacific Ocean. This is the same corporation responsible for the demise of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, NASA, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security | Leave a comment

Drinking from a Fire Hose

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Adam Briggle

Dispatch from the fourth meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (PCSBI) – Washington, D.C. After releasing its report on synthetic biology, today the PCSBI took on a new topic: emerging diagnostic and predictive tools. In … Continue reading →

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Post-Enlightenment Science Policy or:

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Alexander Mosiak

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Unhealthy Skepticism. In the context of the federal budget debacle the Republican party is moving aggressively against the environmental regulation of commercial activities by intramurally debating how to legislatively restrict, defund, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Climate Change, Economics & STEM Research, Future of the University, Interdisciplinarity, NASA, NOAA, NSF, STEM Policy, Sustainability, Risk Management, & Long-Term Security, TechnoScience & Technoscientism, US Science Agencies | 2 Comments

Drowning in Data?

Posted on February 11, 2011 by Robert Frodeman

I haven’t looked at the 10 (!) articles in Science yet, but it is hilarious to read the CHE summary article ‘Drowning in Data‘. It is not, as denizens of CSID would expect, an account of how we have too … Continue reading →

Posted in Accountability, Future of the University, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | 2 Comments

Drowning in Data

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Britt Holbrook

An article in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education summarizes a series of articles in Science, all of which describe the fact — and the consequences — of   too much focus on the production of new knowledge. This is the artwork from … Continue reading →

Posted in Libraries, STEM Policy, US Science Agencies | Leave a comment

SBE 2020

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Britt Holbrook

NSF’s Directorate for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) has just made available the White Papers that it received in response to a call from SBE Assistant Director Myron Gutmann. Here is the announcement: I am pleased to let … Continue reading →

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