Expanding Research Capacity at United States Universities: a Study of Academic Research and Development Investment from 1990–2005

Growing emphasis has been placed on universities to contribute to the innovation process and as a result academic research and development expenditures have increased in recent years. Nevertheless, little is known about the specific ways in which universities have expanded their research capacity. This paper examines how universities in the United States (US) have expanded research capacity as research funding has increased. Specifically, it identifies what type of research infrastructure, including various categories of human capital and research equipment, are most closely associated with increased academic research funding. Using data from 375 US universities spanning the period 1990–2005, through multiple regression analysis this study finds that ‘traditional’ and new ‘market’ based elements of research capacity are associated with increased research funding. The implications of this study extend beyond the US since many countries are both investing in expanding research capacity and transforming the way research is organised within universities.     

Crossing, grading, and keeping pure: animal breeding and exchange around 1860

During the first half of the nineteenth century, breeders of livestock in the United States and Germany began to approach animal husbandry in a more systematic manner. Responding to changes in ideas about heredity and economic pressures, they imported large numbers of animals from abroad, especially from Great Britain. With these imported breeds they set out to transform their native specimens to better meet the needs of an industrializing nation. Their strategies for animal improvement, which included grading, crossing, and pure breeding, constituted practical experiments into heredity that ran parallel to the work of naturalists. By 1860, the modern system of breeding, with its attention to public registries of pedigrees, gained increasing influence in both contexts.     

Global Status, Intra-Institutional Stratification and Organizational Segmentation: A Time-Dynamic Tobit Analysis of ARWU Position Among U.S. Universities

Ranking systems such as The Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Rankings of World Universities simultaneously mark global status and stimulate global academic competition. As international ranking systems have become more prominent, researchers have begun to examine whether global rankings are creating increased inequality within and between universities. Using a panel Tobit regression analysis, this study assesses the extent to which markers of inter-institutional stratification and organizational segmentation predict global status among US research universities as measured by position in ARWU. Findings indicate some support that both inter-institutional stratification and organizational segmentation predict global status.     

Internet access in libraries

Abstract

This article compares the newspaper coverage of Internet access in public libraries across two countries, Canada and Singapore. The aim is to discover some of the main concerns and themes that the press identifies with libraries, noting the differences between the two countries in this regard, and then to provisionally link these differences to certain structural characteristics of their respective societies and states. To achieve these aims I compare press coverage produced in terms of dates of publication, discourse producers, and discourse content. Implications of the findings for libraries and librarians are discussed.