Researcher Background Impact on Research PDF

Cultural and its Impact on The Research Process SCIENCE AFFECTS CULTURE: The most obvious effect of science has been its medical and technological applications, with the accompanying effects on health care, lifestyles, and social structures. • Science can also influence culture, in many modern socie...

Cultural and its Impact on The Research Process SCIENCE AFFECTS CULTURE: The most obvious effect of science has been its medical and technological applications, with the accompanying effects on health care, lifestyles, and social structures. • Science can also influence culture, in many modern societies, by playing a major role in shaping cultural worldviews, concepts, and thinking patterns. • Sometimes this occurs by the gradual diffusion of ideas from science into the culture. • At other times, however, there is a conscious effort, by scientists or nonscientists, to use "the authority of science" for rhetorical purposes, to claim that scientific theories and evidence support a particular belief system or political program. Cultural and its Impact on The Research Process CULTURE AFFECTS SCIENCE: ISM (a distinctive doctrine, practice, system, philosophy, cause, or theory), which is mainly concerned with the operation of science, asks "How does culture affect science?" If society wants to obtain certain types of science-based medical or technological applications, this will influence the types of scientific research that society supports with its resources. If scientists (or their financial supporters) have already accepted some cultural concepts, such as metaphysical and/or ideological theories, they will tend to prefer (and support) scientific theories that agree with these cultural-personal theories. In the ISM diagram (next slide) this influence appears as a conceptual factor, external relationships... with cultural-personal theories… For example, the Soviet government supported the science of Lysenko because his theories and research supported the principles of Marxism. They also hoped that this science would increase their own political power, so their support of Lysenko. This happens all the time in science and in medicine…. One must be vigilant to make sure that culture, religion, financial gain and such do not impact the researcher or the research process. Cultural and its Impact on The Research Process The Impact of Diversity on the Research Project and the Research Team What you know as “diversity”: • Demographic differences: color, sex, gender, age, religious views, ethnicity, etc. • What we also need to consider when creating and promoting diversity: informational differences (educational and experiential) and differences in values and goals. • Diversity can have a direct effect on performance but diversity can also generate conflict The Impact of Diversity on the Research Project and the Research Team • Researchers found that informational diversity stirred constructive conflict, or debate, around the task at hand. That is, people deliberate about the best course of action. • This type of conflict that absolutely should be develop in organizations. • How the conflict is handled will determine whether diversity is beneficial for productivity or impeding productivity • On the other hand, demographic diversity can sometimes whip up interpersonal conflict. This is the kind of conflict people should fear. • People think, I have a different opinion than you. • I don't like what you do or how you do it. • I don't like you. This is what can destroy a group. The Impact of Diversity on the Research Project and the Research Team • Another type of diversity is based on goals and values, and it actually generates both types of conflict. • This is the most potentially damaging of all the diversities. • Without value-goal homogeneity, a team can accomplish little. • But once a team recognizes and accepts a goal, it makes problems easier to deal with because each person knows the intentions of the others are the same. Gender and its Impact on the Research Process Issues Of Performance Differences Between Male And Female Researchers • In earlier studies it was shown that among starting researchers gendered performance differences seem small to non-existent (Van Arensbergen et al. 2012). • If the differences do not occur in the early career, they may emerge in a later period, or may even remain absent. • In recent studies performance levels were addressed about 10 years later. • Various performance indicators were used: full/fractional counted productivity, citation impact, and relative citation impact in terms of the share of papers in the top 10 % of highly cited papers. • After the 10 years period, productivity of male researchers has grown faster than of female researcher, but the field normalized (relative) citation impact indicators of male and female researchers remain about equal. • Furthermore, performance data do explain to a certain extent why male careers develop much faster than female researchers’ careers; but controlling for performance differences. • Consequently, the process of hiring academic and research staff still remains biased. Fitting the Researcher to the Research Project Fitting the researcher to the research project may be a very natural process or it can be a frustration process which can hamper how the research team works together and the outcome of the research project. There are too many influencing factors to discuss in this presentation but there are many factors which influence the researcher-research project fit. Eight factors have been identified that researchers see as essential in judging the merits of active participation in health research collaborations: • Opportunities for active involvement in cutting-edge, • Interest in science; • Effective leadership; • Competence of potential partners in and commitment to good scientific practice; • Capacity building; • Respect for the needs, interests and agendas of partners; • Opportunities for discussion and disagreement; • Trust and confidence; • Justice and fairness in collaboration. These factors have an important ethical or moral dimension for the research and researcher involved in research projects. Top Qualities Required to be a Good Researcher • Interest • Motivation • Inquisitiveness • Commitment • Sacrifice • Excelling • Knowledge • Recognition • Scholarly Approach • Integration Research-oriented- focused in conducting research Efficient - capable of having quality research using fewer resources Scientific - follows the scientific method Effective - does best performance always Active - always on the go and never passive Resourceful - uses available resources effectively Creative - capable of thinking outside the box Honest - always acknowledges sources and other researchers Never - manipulate data or takes any shortcuts Economical - handles resources well Continues to live curiously From 2 different resources