The Science of Team Science
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Feature The Science of Team Science BETH BAKER An emerging field delves into the complexities of effective collaboration. s research questions grow ever collaborate with others who have com- team science, as measured by publi- Amore complex and science plementary expertise, in the context of cations (eliminating self-citations as struggles to swim through big data, science now. We now have access to a factor) that are more highly cited major funders, including the National more data, and we think about major compared with single-author papers, Science Foundation (NSF) and the scientific and social challenges more more patents, and the production of National Institutes of Health (NIH), holistically—with a systems approach,” more novel work. are pushing scientists to collaborate says psychologist Kara L. Hall, with the David Foster, director of Harvard more across disciplines, institutions, National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the Forest, points to a study published in and even nations under the banner of NIH and a pioneer in SciTS. May in Nature Climate Change as an team science. The scientific advances In the life sciences, major research example of what a large cross-disciplin- made through cross-disciplinary initiatives—from completing the ary research effort can produce. Part research are crucial. But researchers Human Genome Project to identifying of the Long Term Ecological Research are finding that doing team science the hantavirus or understanding the (LTER) and Science Policy Exchange well can be challenging. The new field effects of climate change—have been programs, the new study looked at three of the science of team science (SciTS) tackled by researchers collaborating scenarios for power-plant emissions and seeks to shed light on what makes across disciplines and institutions. A analyzed the resulting public health ben- effective teams in order to produce the newly released report by the National efits, as measured by the number of pre- best outcomes. Research Council (NRC), Enhancing mature pollution-related deaths. Such “There are so many reasons why the Effectiveness of Team Science, cites research could not be done by those in a a given individual really needs to studies demonstrating the value of single discipline, Foster suggests. In 1993, a transdisciplinary research effort by medical experts, mammalogists, evolutionary biologists, and climatologists led to the rapid identification of the deadly hantavirus, found to be carried by the deer mouse. Photographs: Cynthia Goldsmith, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (hantavirus); Seney Natural History Association (deer mouse). BioScience 65: 639–644. © 2015 Baker. All rights reserved. doi:10.1093/biosci/biv077 Downloaded fromhttp://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/65/7/639/258550 July 2015 / Vol. 65 No. 7 • BioScience 639 by Wilson Dental Library user on 22 June 2018 Feature “The insights are so overwhelm- ingly positive,” he says of his par- ticipation in the LTER program and other cross-disciplinary teams. “For example, I’m an ecologist working in New England, and like every other landscape, it’s been shaped by physi- cal, cultural, and biological processes. I do the ecology, and there’s nothing like having a great physical scientist who understands climate systems and archaeologists who understand the role of people in the environment. The levels of insights are fantastic.” The team science train has clearly left the station, as the NRC report shows. In 1959, a bare majority of papers had more than on author. By 2013, 90 percent did. A 2010 study in Science of Translational Medicine looked at more than 21 million papers published from 1945 onward and found “a fundamental and nearly universal shift in all branches of sci- ence: Teams increasingly dominate solo scientists in the production of high-impact, highly cited science.” Moreover, teams are growing in size and in number of institutions rep- resented, with a majority written by 6 to 10 individuals from more than one institution. A 2007 study by Stefan Wuchty and colleagues, published in Science, which looked at nearly 20 million research articles across academia and 2 million patents, found that teamwork was greatest in the life and physical sciences. But measuring the overall produc- tivity and outcomes of team science is tricky. For one thing, says Jonathon Cummings, an organizational researcher in the business school at Research mentor Paul Siqueira works with a team of Harvard Forest summer Duke University, who served on the research students to calibrate a motorized tramway with sensors that NRC SciTS committee, “what we see will measure light, humidity, moisture, and other attributes above is the patent or the publication, and a regrowing forest. Research mentor Andrew Richardson prepares to head we do not observe all the failed col- into the tree canopy to sample vegetation with students Sidni Frederick laborations. When you just look at the and Ivonne Trujillo to help validate and scale remote measurements of tree observed artifacts, there is a relation- phenology. Photographs: Grace Barber, courtesy of the ship between having more authors and Harvard Forest. having higher impact, but it’s hard to know if it’s causation versus correla- better evaluative tools to measure team processes and products, and surveys tion. So there could be a bias in the effectiveness “that includes, but is not and interviews of team science partici- s amp l e .” limited to, bibliometric indices, co- pants. Particularly challenging is the The NRC committee stressed the authorship network analyses, experts’ measurement of deep interdisciplinary need for an effort to develop more and subjective appraisals of team science knowledge integration.” Downloaded from640 https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-abstract/65/7/639/258550 BioScience • July 2015 / Vol. 65 No. 7 http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org by Wilson Dental Library user on 22 June 2018 Feature The biggest challenge, says Hall, of the field, team members need to is interpreting the value of scien- be able to clearly explain their point tific research—in terms of not just of view, ask basic questions to clarify the number of citations but also the concepts, and practice active listening. effect that the research has on solv- Team science is different in some ing scientific or real-world problems. important ways, though, especially in For organizations such as the NIH, the independence researchers enjoy. she says, evaluators ultimately want to An academic science researcher has know, “Are we enhancing the health of the freedom to assemble a team and the nation? How we link the products the freedom to refuse to participate in of science teams to real-world health another researcher’s project. impacts is a significant challenge.” “In other organizations, the leader Beyond the effort to measure the has the final say,” explains Fiore. “In outcomes of team research, SciTS hopes a business, you can fire somebody. to guide scientists in building effective In universities, you have tenure, and teams. How does a researcher decide that alters the organizational dynam- whether a particular problem is best ics. Also, in universities, there’s a dif- studied by a team or by an individual? ferent influence and power structure.” If a team is best, should members cross Department chairs, for example, may or disciplines and institutions? How large may not play a role in leading science. should it be? Who will lead it? Is there “You may have department chairs who Cognitive scientist Steve Fiore enough grant money to pay for extra are not as active in the field as others stresses that it is crucial for teams time spent on communication and within that department. You could have to invest time in developing a coordination, travel to in-person meet- a professor in a biology department shared understanding and language ings, or special team training? And will who is world famous and [the] chair in order to avoid conflict and team researchers receive proper credit, could be less well known, and that miscommunication. either in terms of promotion and ten- creates an unusual dynamic… with dif- Photograph: Allison W. Fiore. ure or publication authorship? ferences like this, you can’t simply take theories from the study of leadership in The creation of a new field other domains and directly map them does not fit all…. It’s a nuanced and Although there have always been teams onto science.” complex set of activities.” of scientific collaborators, the idea of How firm is the SciTS research studying specifically what makes a foundation? SciTS experts interviewed Are there benefits to diversity? scientific team effective took off just for this article, most of whom come Much of SciTS focuses on how to a decade ago. The term SciTS was from the social sciences, range in their work across disciplines, institutions, or coined in 2006 at a conference, The opinions, from viewing the science as geography. The greater the diversity of Science of Team Science: Assessing the in its infancy or early adolescence to the team, the greater the challenges— Value of Transdisciplinary Research, seeing it as “emergent” or well estab- but also, if done well, the greater the hosted by the NCI. In 2010, the first lished. “This is a field really strongly impact. “Diversity brings about new annual international SciTS conference empirically grounded,” maintains ideas and challenges assumptions we was convened. In June, the sixth such microbiologist Holly Falk-Krzesinski, make. If we have a shared framework conference was to be held at the NIH. who began working on SciTS while at and language, that’s very helpful in SciTS draws heavily on team Northwestern University and who now some cases and makes for an enjoy- research from other fields—business, is a vice president at Elsevier. “From able team experience,” says Noshir the military, sports.