Open AccessDARE to be different? A novel approach for analysing diversity in collaborative research projects
Author(s) -
Frédérique Bone,
Michael M. Hopkins,
Ismael Ràfols,
Jordi MolasGallart,
Puay Tang,
Gail Davey,
Antony Carr
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
research evaluation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1471-5449
pISSN - 0958-2029
DOI - 10.1093/reseval/rvaa006
Subject(s) - operationalization , diversity (politics) , group cohesiveness , narrative , knowledge management , sociology , management science , computer science , data science , psychology , engineering , epistemology , social psychology , philosophy , linguistics , anthropology
Growth in collaborative research raises difficulties for those tasked with research evaluation, particularly in situations where outcomes are slow to emerge. This article presents the ‘Diversity Approach to Research Evaluation’ (DARE) as a novel way to assess how researchers engaged in knowledge creation and application work together as teams. DARE provides two important insights: first, it reveals the differences in background and experience between individual team members that can make research collaboration both valuable and challenging; second, DARE provides early insights into how team members are working together. DARE achieves these insights by analysing team diversity and cohesiveness in five dimensions, building on Boschma’s multi-dimensional concept of proximity. The method we propose combines narratives, maps, and indicators to facilitate the study of research collaboration. The article introduces the DARE method and pilots an initial operationalization through the study of two grant-funded biomedical research projects led by researchers in the UK. Suggestions for further development of the approach are discussed.