Can Network Measures Serve as Indicators of Knowledge Creation and Flow? A Workshop Proposal

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

Government sponsored research and development (R&D) is widely viewed as providing social and economic value whose full extent is challenging to measure. The spectrum of R&D activities - hypotheses, trials, reflections - involves communications processes that are rarely seen or accounted for in evaluation processes. Yet we know that effective and efficient communications are essential for optimal outcomes. The challenge of measuring or gaining insight into these processes means that funders understand little about how to guide or assess communications within science. Very few studies have attempted to quantify or assess the contribution of these "intangible" processes within R&D. This workshop will bring together leading theorists, analysts, and users to explore the possibility that network measures are indicators of dynamics of knowledge creation. Network analysis offers tools and measures to analyze communications interactions in scientific research. With the advent of advanced computing, network analysis has been vitalized as a tool for studying communications processes. Huge networks, such as the Worldwide Web or global linkages among scientists, can be created. Deductive reasoning has been applied to these networks as common patterns have been observed. Amazingly, many real-world networks have been shown to exhibit highly reproducible and often universal characteristics. These features suggest that network analysis may serve as indicators of the underlying activities which they represent, aiding evaluation, planning, and guidance with centrality, clustering, and flows emerging as possible indicators of dynamics in science research. While we continue to lack a general predictive framework that can treat dynamical models using unified theoretical tools, it may be possible to begin to standardize measures related to communications processes within basic sciences.