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Do Synthesis Centers Synthesize? A semantic analysis of diversity and performance

View ORCID ProfileEdward J. Hackett, View ORCID ProfileErin Leahey, John N. Parker, Ismael Rafols, View ORCID ProfileStephanie Hampton, View ORCID ProfileUgo Corte, John M. Drake, Bart Penders, Laura Sheble, Niki Vermeulen, View ORCID ProfileTodd Vision
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/518605
Edward J. Hackett
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Erin Leahey
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John N. Parker
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Ismael Rafols
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Stephanie Hampton
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Ugo Corte
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John M. Drake
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Bart Penders
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Laura Sheble
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Niki Vermeulen
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Todd Vision
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Abstract

Synthesis centers are a recently-developed form of scientific organization that catalyzes and supports a form of interdisciplinary research that integrates diverse theories, methods and data across spatial or temporal scales, scientific phenomena, and forms of expertise to increase the generality, parsimony, applicability, or empirical soundness of scientific explanations. Research has shown the synthesis working group to be a distinctive form of scientific collaboration that reliably produces consequential, high-impact publications, but no one has asked: do synthesis working groups produce publications that are substantially more diverse than those produced outside of synthesis centers, and if so, how and with what effects? We have investigated these questions through a novel textual analysis. We found that if diversity is measured solely by mean difference in the Rao-Stirling (aggregate) measure of diversity, then the answer is no. But synthesis center papers have significantly greater variety and balance, but significantly lower disparity, than papers in the reference corpus. Synthesis center influence is mediated by the greater size of synthesis center collaborations (numbers of authors, distinct institutions, and references) but even when taking size into account, there is a persistent direct effect: synthesis center papers have significantly greater variety and balance, but less disparity, than papers in the reference corpus. We conclude by inviting further exploration of what this novel textual analysis approach might reveal about interdisciplinary research and by offering some practical implications of our results.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 13, 2019.
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Do Synthesis Centers Synthesize? A semantic analysis of diversity and performance
Edward J. Hackett, Erin Leahey, John N. Parker, Ismael Rafols, Stephanie Hampton, Ugo Corte, John M. Drake, Bart Penders, Laura Sheble, Niki Vermeulen, Todd Vision
bioRxiv 518605; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/518605
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Do Synthesis Centers Synthesize? A semantic analysis of diversity and performance
Edward J. Hackett, Erin Leahey, John N. Parker, Ismael Rafols, Stephanie Hampton, Ugo Corte, John M. Drake, Bart Penders, Laura Sheble, Niki Vermeulen, Todd Vision
bioRxiv 518605; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/518605

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