Assessing basic research: Some partial indicators of scientific progress in radio astronomy

As the costs of certain types of scientific research have escalated and as growth rates in overall national science budgets have declined, so the need for an explicit science policy has grown more urgent. In order to establish priorities between research groups competing for scarce funds, one of the most important pieces of information needed by science policy-makers is an assessment of those groups' recent scientific performance. This paper suggests a method for evaluating that performance.After reviewing the literature on scientific assessment, we argue that, while there are no simple measures of the contributions to scientific knowledge made by scientists, there are a number of ‘partial indicators’ — that is, variables determined partly by the magnitude of the particular contributions, and partly by ‘other factors’. If the partial indicators are to yield reliable results, then the influence of these ‘other factors’ must be minimised. This is the aim of the method of ‘converging partial indicators’ proposed in this paper. We argue that the method overcomes many of the problems encountered in previous work on scientific assessment by incorporating the following elements: (1) the indicators are applied to research groups rather than individual scientists; (2) the indicators based on citations are seen as reflecting the impact, rather than the quality or importance, of the research work; (3) a range of indicators are employed, each of which focusses on different aspects of a group's performance; (4) the indicators are applied to matched groups, comparing ‘like’ with ‘like’ as far as possible; (5) because of the imperfect or partial nature of the indicators, only in those cases where they yield convergent results can it be assumed that the influence of the ‘other factors’ has been kept relatively small (i.e. the matching of the groups has been largely successful), and that the indicators therefore provide a reasonably reliable estimate of the contribution to scientific progress made by different research groups.In an empirical study of four radio astronomy observatories, the method of converging partial indicators is tested, and several of the indicators (publications per researcher, citations per paper, numbers of highly cited papers, and peer evaluation) are found to give fairly consistent results. The results are of relevance to two questions: (a) can basic research be assessed? (b) more specifically, can significant differences in the research performance of radio astronomy centres be identified? We would maintain that the evidence presented in this paper is sufficient to justify a positive answer to both these questions, and hence to show that the method of converging partial indicators can yield information useful to science policy-makers.     

Mindset change in a cross-cultural context

Imagine you are Thai and a member of a management team from a European company that acts in an Asian emerging market. Imagine you are a European expat with the assignment to double the turnover from that Asian company in a few years. Imagine you are a Change Maker and they ask you to facilitate the (multinational) management team of that Asian company to develop a market strategy and translate it into a business plan, and you have to deal with cultural differences. How do you manage a small-scale change process based on the principles of action learning in that specific multinational context? That's the essence of this account of practice.     

Context-Sensitive Instructional Design Models: A Response to Design Research,Studies, and Criticism

Instructional design, as it is traditionally conceptualized, is being challenged on several fronts, through surveys of design practice, cross-disciplinary studies of design practice, and practical criticism focusing on issues of design models' flexibility and efficiency. Collectively these challenges raise questions about the viability of the instructional design enterprise. This paper reviews these challenges and attempts to respond by offering alternative approaches to instructional design.     

CERN: Past performance and future prospects: II. The scientific performance of the CERN accelerators

In a series of three papers, we attempt to evaluate the past scientific performance of the three main particle accelerators at the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) over the period since 1960, and to assess the future prospects for CERN and its users during the next ten to fifteen years.We concerned ourselves in a previous paper (Paper 1 - Martin and Irvine [51] with the position of the CERN accelerators in world high-energy physics relative to those at other large laboratories working in the field. We dealt primarily with the period from 1969 to 1978, and attempted to establish how the experimental output from the three principal CERN accelerators, taken as a whole, compared with that from other major facilities. In undertaking this comparative evaluation, we drew on the method of “converging partial indicators” used in previous studies of three Big Science specialties.In contrast, this paper (Paper II) focuses in detail on the scientific performance of each of the CERN accelerators taken individually. In particular, it asks, first, how the outputs from the CERN 28 GeV (giga or billion electron-volts) Proton Synchrotron compare with those from a very similar 33 GeV American accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory over the past two decades? Second, how great have been the experimental achievements of the Intersecting Storage Rings in world terms? And, third, how do the outputs from the CERN 400 GeV Super Proton Synchrotron and from a rival American machine at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory compare? Attempts are then made to identify the main factors responsible for determining the relative scientific performance of each CERN machine.These factors are of relevance to the subject of a third paper (Paper III - Martin and Irvine [52]) which sets out to assess the future prospects for CERN and in particular for LEP, the large electron-positron collider scheduled for completion in the latter part of the 1980s. What are the construction requirements (financial and technical) associated with LEP, and how easily will they be met? How does the scientific potential of LEP compare with that of other major accelerators under construction around the world? And, in the light of the previous record of the CERN accelerators, to what extent is this potential likely to be realized? The paper concludes with a discussion of the extent to which predictive techniques can be utilized in the formulation of scientific priorities, and of the problems in current science policy-making that such techniques might help address.     

The influence of self-determination in physical education on leisure-time physical activity behavior

Using a multitheory approach, this study was designed to investigate the influence of urban adolescents' perceived autonomy and competence in physical education on their physical activity intentions and behaviors during leisure time. A transcontextual model was hypothesized and tested. Urban adolescents (N=653, ages 11-15 years) completed questionnaires assessing relevant psychological constructs and moderate to vigorous physical activity and then had their cardiorespiratory fitness assessed with the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test. Based on our structural equation modeling analyses and fit indexes, the transcontextual model adequately fit the data. We concluded that the two theoretical frameworks--SDT and theory of planned behavior--can be integrated to provide an enhanced understanding of the influence of physical education on leisure-time physical activity. The results revealed that perceived autonomy and competence in physical education are interrelated and function as a whole for enhancing leisure-time physically active intentions and behavior.     

Relationships among values, achievement orientations, and attitudes in youth sport

This research examines the value-expressive function of attitudes and achievement goal theory in predicting moral attitudes. In Study 1, the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire (YSVQ; Lee, Whitehead, & Balchin, 2000) was modified to measure moral, competence, and status values. In Study 2, structural equation modeling on data from 549 competitors (317 males, 232 females) aged 12-15 years showed that moral and competence values predicted prosocial attitudes, whereas moral (negatively) and status values (positively) predicted antisocial attitudes. Competence and status values predicted task and ego orientation, respectively, and task and ego orientation partially mediated the effect of competence values on prosocial attitudes and of status values on antisocial attitudes, respectively. The role of sport values is discussed, and new research directions are proposed.     

The effects of attentional focus instructions on punching velocity and impact forces among trained combat athletes

Research indicates that instructing athlete’s to focus on bodily movements (internal focus of attention [IFA]) may hinder performance, whereas instructing them to focus on the movement outcome (external focus of attention [EFA]) often enhances performance. Despite the importance of instructions in striking combat sports, limited research has examined the influence of IFA and EFA on performance in well-trained combat athletes. This study investigated the effects of different instructional cues on punching velocity (m · s^?1) and normalised impact forces (N · kg^?1) among intermediate (n = 8) and expert (n = 7) competitive boxers and kickboxers. Athletes completed three rounds of 12 maximal effort punches delivered to a punching integrator on three separate days. Day one was a familiarisation session with only control instructions provided. In the following two days athletes randomly received IFA, EFA or control instructions prior to each of the three rounds. Athletes punching with EFA were 4% faster and 5% more forceful than IFA (P < 0.05), and 2% faster and 3% more forceful than control (P < 0.05). Furthermore, experts punched 11% faster and with 13% greater force compared with intermediate athletes (P < 0.05). EFA led to a positive effect on punching performance and should be favoured over IFA and control instructions.