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Is Cooperative Research Center Affiliation Amongst Academic Researchers Stratifying the Academy? The Impacts of Departmental Prestige, Career Trajectory, and Productivity on Center Affiliation

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Cooperative Research Centers and Technical Innovation

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Abstract

This chapter contribution to the edited volume acknowledges while much research is focused on the effectiveness of cooperative research centers at fulfilling their multiple missions related to research, education, and outreach, that little research has analyzed how centers can stratify academic researchers. Based on a representative sample of academic scientists and engineers working at research extensive universities, Xuhong Su and Gretchen Keneson find evidence that cooperative research centers are more likely to include faculty employed in prestigious departments and who are highly productive. The authors discuss the multiple, competing interpretations of these results (i.e., the merit-based vs. accumulative advantage explanations of the allocation of resources in academia). For complementary examinations, see the chapter by Coberly and Gray on job satisfaction amongst academic faculty participating in cooperative research centers and also the chapter by Garrett-Jones and colleagues on role strain amongst faculty in centers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The surveyed fields in this study are biology, computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, earth and atmospheric science, civil engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, material engineering and mechanical engineering. Agriculture and Economics are among 13 fields defined by NSF, but excluded in this study.

  2. 2.

    See A rating of graduate program (Roose and Anderson 1970), An assessment of research doctorate programs in the United States (Jones et al. 1982a, b, c), and Research doctorate programs in the United States: continuity and change (Goldberger et al. 1995).

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Acknowledgments

The data on which this research is based was supported by National Science Foundation CAREER grant REC 0447878/0710836, “University Determinants of Women’s Academic Career Success” (Monica Gaughan, Principal Investigator) and NSF grant SBR 9818229, “Assessing R and D Projects’ Impacts on Scientific and Technical Human Capital Development” (Barry Bozeman, Principal Investigator). The views reported here do not necessarily reflect those of National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina, 817 Henderson Street, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Xuhong Su & Gretchen Keneson

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  1. Xuhong Su
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  2. Gretchen Keneson
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Correspondence to Xuhong Su .

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  1. 1810 S. College Road, Columbus, 43210, USA

    Craig Boardman

  2. Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, 27695, USA

    Denis O. Gray

  3. Campus Box 7650, Raleigh, 27695, USA

    Drew Rivers

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Su, X., Keneson, G. (2013). Is Cooperative Research Center Affiliation Amongst Academic Researchers Stratifying the Academy? The Impacts of Departmental Prestige, Career Trajectory, and Productivity on Center Affiliation. In: Boardman, C., Gray, D., Rivers, D. (eds) Cooperative Research Centers and Technical Innovation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4388-9_6

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