Collaboration has many benefits, but can also be difficult due to increased coordination, incompatible work styles or research approaches, and difficulty in communication. These problems are often exacerbated by distance, which can make collaboration between departments on a single campus more attractive; particularly as universities invest in interdisciplinary facilities. At ...
Title:
One university, two campuses: initiating and sustaining research
collaborations between two campuses of a single institution
CCS:
Collaborative and social computing
Keywords:
collaboration
Abstract:
<p>
Collaboration has many benefits, but can also be difficult due to ... These problems are often exacerbated by distance, which can make
collaboration between departments on a single campus more attractive; particularly as ... creates unique challenges for these universities in encouraging and supporting
collaboration. . There have been few systematic studies, however, of
collaborations between campuses of a single institution. We report on a ... a single institution. We report on a qualitative study of
collaborations between the medical college and other departments of our university, ... build social ties or draw on existing experience with potential
collaborators prior to starting a project. Participants also identified unexpected institutional ...
Primary CCS:
Collaborative and social computing
References:
Birnholtz, J. When do researchers
collaborate? toward a model of
collaboration propensity in science and engineering
Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 58, 14 (2007), 2226--2239.
Bozeman, B. and Corley, E. Scientists'
collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital.
Research Policy, 33(2004), 599--616.
Chompalov, I. and Shrum, W. The organization of scientific
collaborations.
Research Policy, 31(2002), 749--767.
Cummings, J. and Kiesler, S. Coordination costs and project outcomes in multi-university
collaborations.
Research Policy, 36, 10 (2007), 138--152.
Cummings, J. and Kiesler, S. Who
collaborates successfully?: prior experience reduces
collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research.
Proc. ACM CSCW, (2008), 437--446.
De Solla Price, D. J. and Beaver, D.
Collaboration in an invisible college.
American Psychologist, 21(1966), 1011--1018.
Hara, N., Solomon, P., Kim, S. L. and Sonnenwald, D. H. An Emerging View of Scientific
Collaboration: Scientists' Perspectives on
Collaboration and Factors that Impact
Collaboration.
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54, 10 (2003), 952--965.
Jeffrey, P. Smoothing the Waters: Observations on the Process of Cross-Disciplinary Research
Collaboration.
Social Studies of Science, 33(2003), 539--562.
Kraut, R., Egido, C. and Galegher, J. Patterns of Contact and Communication in Scientific Research
Collaborations. In J. Galegher, Kraut, R.,& Egido, C., ed.
Intellectual Teamwork. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ, 1990.
Luo, A. and Olson, J. S. How Collaboratories Affect Scientists from Developing Countries. In G. Olson, A. Zimmerman and N. Bos, ed.
Scientific collaboration on the Internet. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008.
Nomura, S., Birnholtz, J., Leshed, G., Rieger, O., Gay, G. and Trumbull, D. Cutting into
Collaboration: Understanding Coordination in Distributed and Interdisciplinary Medical Research. In
Proc. ACM CSCW (2008), 427--436.
Olson, J. S., Hofer, E. C., Bos, N., Zimmerman, A., Olson, G., Cooney, D. and Faniel, I. A Theory of Remote Scientific
Collaboration. In G. Olson, A. Zimmerman and N. Bos, ed.
Scientific Collaboration on the Internet. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008.
Shrum, W., Chompalov, I. and Genuth, J. Trust, Conflict and Performance in Scientific
Collaborations.
Social Studies of Science, 31, 5 (2001), 681--730.
Walsh, J. and Maloney, N.
Collaboration structure, communication media, and problems in scientific work teams.
Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 12, 2 (2007), 19.
Full Text:
... - 140-birnholtz.doc33 One University, Two Campuses: Initiating and Sustaining Research
Collaborations Between Two Campuses of a Single Institution Jeremy Birnholtz1,2, Laura ... NY 10065 jpb277@cornell.edu, lforlano@id.iit.edu, yy239@cornell.edu, jer76@cornell.edu, kwl32@cornell.edu, gkg1@cornell.edu, cah2021@med.cornell.edu ABSTRACT
Collaboration has many benefits, but can also be difficult due to ... These problems are often exacerbated by distance, which can make
collaboration between departments on a single campus more attractive; particularly as ... creates unique challenges for these universities in encouraging and supporting
collaboration. . There have been few systematic studies, however, of
collaborations between campuses of a single institution. We report on a ... a single institution. We report on a qualitative study of
collaborations between the medical college and other departments of our university, ... build social ties or draw on existing experience with potential
collaborators prior to starting a project. Participants also identified unexpected institutional ... Group and Organization Interfaces. General Terms Design, Human Factors. Keywords
Collaboration, , cyberinfrastructure, virtual organizations. 1. INTRODUCTION
Collaboration offers many benefits to researchers, and is an increasingly common ... several studies over the past two decades have shown that
collaborators often face obstacles in working together successfully [7, 16, 28, ... in working together successfully [7, 16, 28, 29]. Difficulties in
collaboration can be exacerbated by barriers such as distance between research ... distance between research sites [7], differences between disciplines in which
collaborators were trained [15], and the readiness of individual
collaborators to work together [25] [2]. To help better understand and ... interest in developing a more systematic understanding of both how
collaboration works (e.g., [10]) and how we might better support it ... of this work has focused on support for geographically distributed
collaborations across multiple institutions. There has been less work examining
collaboration across multiple campuses of a single institution. While many of ... a single university is uniquely situated to encourage and support
collaboration via communication infrastructure, seed grants and other financial incentives, social ... and units. Indeed, there have been substantial efforts to encourage
collaboration within universities. Stanford University, for example, moved its medical school ... to Palo Alto in 1959 in part to encourage novel
collaboration opportunities [5]. More recently, universities have built multi-disciplinary institutes (e.g., ... at the University of Michigan (http://www.lsi.umich.edu/) to encourage researchers to
collaborate in addressing important problems. At universities such as Cornell and ... increases the challenge these universities face when trying to encourage
collaboration between medical and other researchers on critical problems in the ... work together, these universities face the added challenges that potential
collaborators often do not know each other, and that the work ... two campuses may differ substantially [24]. Indeed, the benefits of
collaboration ... and working styles can be amplified by distance. By examining
collaboration across two campuses of a single institution, we can better ... how a shared institutional context can affect researchers? attitudes toward
collaboration generally and toward specific
collaborators or projects. We can also better understand how this shared ... better understand how this shared context affects the ability of
collaborators ... to carry out their projects. Understanding how to effectively support
collaboration across their campuses is critical both for universities wishing to ... organization researchers aiming to more systematically understand how to support
collaboration in different settings. In this paper, we present results from ... how researchers on two campuses of a large university locate
collaborators, , initiate
collaborations, , and the unique challenges they face in carrying out ... and the unique challenges they face in carrying out these
collaborations. . 2. BACKGROUND/LITERATURE REVIEW We focus in this section on ... We focus in this section on how researchers identify potential
collaborators (i.e., how
collaborations start) and how they continue to work together and coordinate. ... continue to work together and coordinate. 2.1 Locating and Assessing
Collaborators Much early research on scientific
collaboration ... focused on locating needed expertise and resources (e.g., [11] others).
Collaboration was seen as a way to tap the expertise or ... old problems in new ways [3, 4, 12]. Geographically distributed
collaboration was seen as a way to reach out further ? ... community [13, 23]. Increasingly, however, experience has made clear that
collaboration is difficult and that researchers are often reluctant to work ... develop a more systematic understanding of the conditions under which
collaboration (or team science, as it is referred to by some ... is that social ties matter. That is, people tend to
collaborate with and share knowledge with those to whom they have ... is evident both in early observations that researchers tend to
collaborate and do research in ?invisible colleges? of researchers [6, 9], ... sharing systems in organizations [31]. Some recent systems to encourage
collaboration, , such as the Nanohub (nanohub.org) have also relied on ... have also relied on rendering social ties explicit to encourage
collaboration. . Beyond social ties, individuals selecting
collaborators on a project have been observed to rely on such ... been suggested that prior experience can help reduce barriers to
collaboration [8]. What all of this suggests is that fostering
collaboration is about more than just creating awareness of expertise. It ... the social ties between researchers that are needed for effective
collaboration. . Universities bring researchers from a range of disciplines together ... these advantages enjoyed by universities begin to disappear when potential
collaborators are split across two campuses. Distance may impede both awareness ... split across two campuses. Distance may impede both awareness of
collaborators? ? expertise and the ease with which informal meetings can ... identity [27]. Nonetheless, we have observed several instances of effective
collaboration across two campuses of our university. The first research question ... question we explore in this study, therefore, is how these
collaborations ... started. In particular, we paid attention to how people located
collaborators 2.2 Coordinating on
Collaboration One common difficulty in geographically distributed
collaboration is coordination of efforts and communication among
collaborators [7]. As discussed above, when
collaborators are far from each other, there are fewer opportunities for ... single university is in a unique position to help facilitate
collaboration. . While distance creates communication and coordination barriers across campuses, ... In addition, institutions can provide shared infrastructure for communicating and
collaborating between the two campuses. Such infrastructure can be targeted to ... these advantages may not be as salient as with same-campus
collaboration. . Research on organizational identity suggests that remote/satellite locations can ... we wondered whether being part of the same institution helped
collaborators working across the campuses of the university we studied. We ... a large, comparative multi-case study of geographically distributed multi-disciplinary research
collaborations. . Thirty-nine of these
collaborations have been identified that span two campuses of our university. ... two campuses of our university. To better understand how research
collaborations are initiated and sustained, we conducted a field study using ... interview and observation methods. From the total set of 39
collaborations, , we identified projects at various points in their life ... and July 2010, we conducted interviews and ethnographic observations of
collaborations between two campuses of a large academic research university in ... of several inter-campus retreats organized by the university to foster
collaborations, , or they were explicitly mentioned by another participant as ...
... from the Medical College and 2 from the main campus)
collaborate on a research project on obesity. The remaining 19 participants ... participants work on one or more of 11 other intercampus
collaborations on a wide-range of topics. Interviews focused on the initiation ... a wide-range of topics. Interviews focused on the initiation of
collaborations, , problems and challenges experienced along the way, coordination within ... problems and challenges experienced along the way, coordination within the
collaboration, , competing priorities, and the extent to which participants feel ... gain a better understanding of how participants felt about the
collaboration as well as how they initiated projects and
collaborated with other team members [19, 20]. 3.3 Data Analysis All ... how awareness of expertise influences the initiation and sustenance of
collaboration. . Additional secondary and tertiary sub-themes were added to the ... consistency throughout the process. 4. Results 4.1 Locating and Assessing
Collaborators We were first interested in how researchers chose
collaborators and initiated projects together between the two campuses. As we ... here, participants tended to be very apprehensive about starting new
collaborations; ; even though they were part of the same institution ... and relied heavily on past experience or signs that the
collaboration experience would be positive. Often this proved more important to ... Most participants reported some apprehension around the initiation of new
collaborations, , often stemming from their own or others? negative past ... to know that they could trust and rely on their
collaborators. . According to a virology researcher on the main campus, ... the main campus, ?60% of people just don?t want to
collaborate under any circumstances?that?s not something you can really do anything ... about? (Lucas). Many noted that the likelihood of a positive
collaboration ... experience could be even more important than the topic of
collaboration. . Andrew said that it would be ideal to read ... to read all of the available literature and choose a
collaborator whose work is best, but a shared location and good ... relationship often take precedence. Another participant, Ian, said, ?I pick
collaborators, , not projects,? and that: I would be willing to ... whether or not the topic is interesting (Ian). In choosing
collaborators, , Eric said that he tries to avoid people with ... (Eric H). Participants described many strategies for assessment of potential
collaborators. . A common one was past experience. As Reuben said, ...
collaborator. . Arnold, a doctor at the Medical College, relied on ... research experience or even a past social relationship with the
collaborator. . Rather, he drew on knowledge of an experience they ... have common histories to fall back on. 4.1.2 Meeting New
Collaborators Most participants reported that their knowledge of others? research interests ... research interests stemmed largely from prior social contact, particularly for
collaborators on the same campus. Examples included being students together, working ... the IRB), friendships, sharing common interests, having a history of
collaboration with an individual or institution, and having common
collaborators or contacts. This stood in stark contrast to their reported ... stood in stark contrast to their reported knowledge of potential
collaborators at the other campus, where lack of spatial propinquity meant ... in mind, the university recognizes that it is difficult for
collaborators to identify each other across the two campuses. It has ... organize such periodic retreats is a unique advantage that one-university-multiple-campus
collaboration can have in comparison to many other distributed
collaborative projects. Retreats typically consist of a series of research presentations ... retreats were helpful in building ties that led to eventual
collaboration. . Researchers studying biomembranes, for example, found that a problem-focused ... and it would make you want to seek out the
collaborators. . The couple that I went to; I think that ... that perceptions and details can have significant consequences for how
collaborators are perceived and assessed, and the likelihood that
collaboration will result. In general ? even within a single institution ... ? even within a single institution ? we found that
collaborators were apprehensive about engaging in new
collaborations and tried to rely on past experience to find
collaborators with whom they were likely to work well. At the ... At the same time, many were willing to meet new
collaborators in environments where they could discuss research and also attempt ... were likely to work well together or not. 4.2 Sustaining
Collaboration We were also interested in the challenges that participants faced ... interested in the challenges that participants faced in keeping their
collaborations going. We wondered in particular if a shared institutional context ... of the coordination and logistical difficulties experienced by multi-site, multi-institution
collaborations. . 4.2.1 Intra-Institutional Differences Participants reported that many of their ...
... the two campuses. Ian said: if we want to have
collaborations that involve more than just having a good person to ... administrative and logistical procedures are needed to provide better support
collaborations within one institution. 4.2.2 Style and Cultural Differences Participants also ... medical campus expressed his frustration with email response from his
collaborators on the main campus: Frequently we?ll send emails and you ... is a different culture. Many participants expressed frustration with past
collaborators, , such as Lucas, a virology researcher on the main ... Jennifer, a social scientist at the main campus, had medical
collaborators who thought they were being supportive by gathering data and ... but she said that: The data that they [her doctor
collaborators] ] collected?it was collected very systematically, very time intensively, but ...
... affected by researchers? perceptions about their own discipline and their
collaborators. . Some scientists from the main campus, for example, reported ... observed many cases where communication highlighted confusion or conflicts between
collaborators. ... . Often participants reported that, even though they knew their
collaborators were working hard, they felt the
collaborators did not have a good understanding of what others felt ... knowledge of physical sciences. That?s brings some confusion into the
collaboration. . One common occurrence was that, when there was not ... between the campuses or differences between the research approaches of
collaborators. . 38 4.2.3 Communication Infrastructure Our final question was whether ... participants reported that it was difficult to talk to their
collaborators on the other campus as much as they wished they ... the two campuses. One is that scheduling synchronous conversations with
collaborators was difficult, both because of different schedules and work styles, ... the evenings or on weekends, which are times when their
collaborators on the main campus were often not available. This led ...
... to proceed with the work than to check with a
collaborator to be sure everything was being done in exactly the ... to perceptions about not caring about a project, as when
collaborators did not respond right away or perform a task as ... University has provided large video conferencing facilities to encourage cross-campus
collaboration, , these are not convenient. A conference room must be ... more than, let?s say, three users. Because sometimes if the
collaboration may involve [people who are] here [in] [the university] and ... the communication infrastructure provided by the institution helps with cross-campus
collaboration, ... , but that the communication troubles commonly experienced by distant
collaborators are alive and well here. 5. DISCUSSION We began this ... to understand the unique challenges associated with initiating and sustaining
collaborations between multiple campuses of a single institution. 5.1 Implications for ... multiple campuses of a single institution. 5.1 Implications for Meeting
Collaborators We found first that participants were generally enthusiastic about
collaborating, , but extremely apprehensive about starting new
collaborative projects. They were reluctant to engage with new
collaborators unless they felt that the experience was likely to be ... past experience, but also sought to assess whether new potential
collaborators were likely to be good or not. 39 In some ... to the task of assessing the likely quality of a
collaborator. . Our participants relied on existing social ties some of ... do suggest some advantage to a single institution in fostering
collaboration. . Participants valued the retreats and other programs set up ...
... these findings suggest is that our participants were interested in
collaborating, , but that they wanted to have positive experiences. Those ... have positive experiences. Those interested in supporting the initiation of
collaboration within a single institution (or beyond) should think about how ... project and others currently being developed to help foster new
collaboration between researchers. Focusing these systems merely on the identification of ... or priorities, and asking people to complete assessments of their ?
collaboration readiness (e.g., [25]). 5.2 Implications for Coordination A second key ... being part of the same institution may have helped some
collaborators meet each other and develop trust, this did not have ... part of the same institution suggests that this actually made
collaboration more difficult some of the time. More generally this suggests ... suggests that being part of the same institution can blind
collaborators to potential trouble spots arising from differences between the campuses. ... the campuses. It also suggests that institutions wishing to encourage
collaboration need to pay attention not just to bringing researchers together, ... build institutes that allow the researchers to work in a
collaborative space (see examples cited above). This is more difficult in ... This is not a problem that is likely unique to
collaboration across two campuses of a single institution, but it does ... that the coordination problems described by prior work on distributed
collaboration may sometimes stem from different perceptions of when communication is ... consisted of people willing to participate in an interview on
collaboration, , so their views and attitudes toward
collaboration may not reflect those of the broader population of researchers. ... researchers. At the same time, they did describe apprehension about
collaboration and means for assessing
collaborators that likely have some more common elements. Second, interview data ...
... what artifacts and communication technologies play a role in maintaining
collaboration networks? How do individual personalities, skills and expertise influence the ... roles that people play to enhance the success of distributed
collaborations? ? Gathering artifacts such as e-mails, instant messaging chat session ... content as well as the communication patterns that occur within
collaboration. . It would be beneficial to follow one of the ... would be beneficial to follow one of the larger intercampus
collaborations in depth over the course of a year or several ... several years to track the development and evolution of participants?
collaboration networks. 40 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is supported in part ... Press, Cambridge, MA, 1977. [2] Birnholtz, J. When do researchers
collaborate? ? toward a model of
collaboration propensity in science and engineering Journal of the American Society ... 14 (2007), 2226-2239. [3] Bozeman, B. and Corley, E. Scientists'
collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital. Research Policy, ... [4] Chompalov, I. and Shrum, W. The organization of scientific
collaborations. . Research Policy, 31(2002), 749-767. [5] Cole, J. R. The ... and Kiesler, S. Coordination costs and project outcomes in multi-university
collaborations. . Research Policy, 36, 10 (2007), 138-152. [8] Cummings, J. ... 10 (2007), 138-152. [8] Cummings, J. and Kiesler, S. Who
collaborates successfully?: prior experience reduces
collaboration barriers in distributed interdisciplinary research. Proc. ACM CSCW, (2008), 437-446. ... 437-446. [9] De Solla Price, D. J. and Beaver, D.
Collaboration in an invisible college. American Psychologist, 21(1966), 1011-1018. [10] Falk-Krzesinski, ... L. and Sonnenwald, D. H. An Emerging View of Scientific
Collaboration: : Scientists' Perspectives on
Collaboration and Factors that Impact
Collaboration. . Journal of the American Society for Information Science and ... Smoothing the Waters: Observations on the Process of Cross-Disciplinary Research
Collaboration. . Social Studies of Science, 33(2003), 539-562. [16] Kennedy, D. ... Galegher, J. Patterns of Contact and Communication in Scientific Research
Collaborations. . In J. Galegher, Kraut, R.,& Egido, C., ed. Intellectual ... In G. Olson, A. Zimmerman and N. Bos, ed. Scientific
collaboration ... G., Rieger, O., Gay, G. and Trumbull, D. Cutting into
Collaboration: : Understanding Coordination in Distributed and Interdisciplinary Medical Research. In ... Cooney, D. and Faniel, I. A Theory of Remote Scientific
Collaboration. . In G. Olson, A. Zimmerman and N. Bos, ed. ... In G. Olson, A. Zimmerman and N. Bos, ed. Scientific
Collaboration on the Internet. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. [26] Powell, ... I. and Genuth, J. Trust, Conflict and Performance in Scientific
Collaborations. . Social Studies of Science, 31, 5 (2001), 681-730. [29] ... 31, 5 (2001), 681-730. [29] Walsh, J. and Maloney, N.
Collaboration structure, communication media, and problems in scientific work teams. Journal ...
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