Transcript RDMRose: Research Data Management for LIS Session 2 The Nature of Research and the Need for RDM Session 2.1 The social organisation.

RDMRose: Research Data Management for LIS
Session 2 The Nature of Research and the Need for RDM
Session 2.1 The social organisation of research
The social organisation of
research
Session 2.1
Nov-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Learning outcomes
At the end of this session you will be able to:
• Explain the place of research in universities
• Apply theories of academic discipline and
speciality to the issues of RDM
Nov-15
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Session overview
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Research in HEIs
Types of academic disciplines
Academic tribes
Disciplinary differences
Specialisation, fragmentation, hybridisation,
fluidity
Nov-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose
Research in HEIs
• Research is important to universities!
• There are many stakeholders
– Senior researchers/research groups
– Early career researchers
– Postgraduate Research Students
– Departmental administrators
– Data specialists
• Research funding is often project based
Nov-15
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Types of academic discipline
(Biglan, 1973)
• Academic disciplines are different; one classic
taxonomy is based on the following factors:
– Hard (paradigmatic) – soft (non-paradigmatic)
– Pure – applied
– Living – non-living
Nov-15
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Academic tribes
(Becher &Trowler, 2001)
• Academic disciplines could be seen as “global
tribes”
• They share:
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A sense of identity and personal commitment
Myths
A sense of what is a “contribution”
Social networks, with gatekeepers
Formal communication channels: journals and
conferences
• Peer review
– An “invisible college” and informal networks
Nov-15
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Disciplinary differences
• “Disciplines differ in the ways they structure
themselves, establish identities, maintain
boundaries, regulate and reward practitioners,
manage consensus and dissent, and
communicate internally and externally.” (Klein,
1996, p. 55)
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“Blurring, cracking and crossing”
(Klein, 1993)
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Disciplines change
Disciplines overlap
Most disciplines are a mix of hard/soft; pure/applied
Proliferation of specialities
– 1000 maths journals with 4500 subtopics (Becher &
Trowler, p. 14)
– “Research tracks and specialties grow, split, join, adapt
and die” (Klein, 1996, p. 55)
• Theories and methods may be greater common ground
than subject
• Interdisciplinarity as a major creative strategy
Nov-15
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Example: Geography
• Has fundamental internal divisions: Physical
and human
• Are diverse internationally: different origins: in
Germany, earth science, in France history
• Has seen many new specialties: “human,
cultural, economic, political, urban, and
regional geography as well as biogeography,
geomorphology, climatology, environmental
science and cartography” (Klein, 1996, p. 41)
Nov-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
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Specialisation, fragmentation,
hybridisation, fluidity
• Have material impact on LIS collection
– The way that journals change titles, are
superceded
– “Scatter” (Palmer, 2010) creates much of the work
for LIS in facilitating access to the vastly complex
body of academic knowledge
Nov-15
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Analysing an academic department
ACTIVITY 2.1
Nov-15
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Activity 2.1 Analysing an academic
department
• How would you characterise the subject as a
whole?
• Can you identify some specialities? Do you
know of any very new specialities?
• Identify some examples of interdisciplinarity
or links between this Department and others.
• Share your thoughts with a colleague who
works to support a different discipline
Nov-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
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REFERENCES
Nov-15
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References
• Becher, T., & Trowler, P.R. (2001). Academic Tribes and
Territories: Intellectual Enquiry and the Culture of
Disciplines (2nd ed.). Philadelphia; Buckingham: Society for
Research into Higher Education; Open University Press.
• Biglan, A. (1973). The characteristics of subject matter in
different academic areas. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 57(3), 195-203.
• Klein, J. T. (1993). Blurring, cracking, and crossing:
permeation and the fracturing of discipline. In E. MesserDavidow, D. R. Shumway, & D. Sylvan (Eds.), Knowledges:
Historical and Critical Studies in Disciplinarity (pp. 185-211).
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Nov-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
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References
• Klein, J. T. (1996). Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge,
Disciplinarities, and Interdisciplinarities. Charlottesville:
University Press of Virginia.
• Palmer, C. L. (2010). Information research on
interdisciplinarity. In R. Frodeman, J. T. Klein, & C.
Mitcham (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of
Interdisciplinarity. Oxford; New York: Oxford University
Press.
• Palmer, C. L., & Cragin, M. H. (2009). Scholarship and
disciplinary practices. Annual Review of Information
Science and Technology, 42(1), 163-212.
Nov-15
Learning material produced by RDMRose
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is/research/projects/rdmrose