Monitor on Psychology - December 2011 - (Page 43)

educatIon leadershIp conFerence The science behind “I team science Charles Votaw that drive team science, you have to make up for that lack of t turns out there’s a lot of similarity between the bumping into each other.” collaborative structures needed to put on a Broadway Strategies for overcoming that hurdle include using show and to do team science,” Bonnie Spring, Basecamp and similar project management tools, exchanging PhD, told participants at APA’s 2011 Education Leadership students across labs and holding in-person meetings, said Conference. Spring. Regular interactions focused on the science itself also The average number of people involved in creating a facilitate team-based research, she added. Broadway show increased from two around 1880 to eight Teams also need to develop a common language and around 1930 and has stayed steady since then, she explained, constructs, something that’s harder citing a 2005 study in Science. Eight than it sounds, Spring warned. Other seems to be “something of a ceiling” disciplines may have methodologies when it comes to teams, said Spring, and assumptions very different from adding that the number of authors psychology’s, she said. of scientific publications has jumped Institutional cultural norms from one to three or four over the last that support interdisciplinary four decades. The Broadway literature teams are also key. In addition to also suggests there’s a “sweet spot” institutional leadership, tenure and between having too many old-timers promotion committees need to or newcomers on teams, she said. understand the differences between While Broadway’s experience may interdisciplinary and solo work. In foreshadow what’s to come in research, psychology journals, the first author Spring said, the emerging science of is traditionally the student and the team science has already produced second the mentor, Spring pointed important lessons. out, while in medical journals, it’s When it comes to collaborations the first and last authors who matter. among universities, for example, “Those are small things that make a research points to the need for more big difference,” she said. effort put into bringing collaborators “It turns out there’s a lot of similarity between To capture all these lessons, closer together, if only virtually. the collaborative structures needed to put on a Spring developed a series of Publications jointly produced Broadway show and to do team science,” said online training modules aimed at by collaborations of two or more Dr. Bonnie Spring. junior investigators seeking their different institutions tend to have first grants, senior investigators more impact than those produced developing collaborative projects and research development by single schools or solo authors, said Spring. But a review of officers. Funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation-funded collaborations found the free interactive modules include an overview of the science that the more universities involved, the fewer the publications, of team science plus modules focused on the team research patents and grant awards that result. process in behavioral science, basic medical science and That’s because a collaboration’s effectiveness declines when clinical medical science. The modules are available at www. team members are more than 30 meters apart, Spring explained. teamscience.net. n “There are no water cooler conversations,” she said. “If —R.A. ClAy you want them to have the conversations and collaboration DeceMber 2011 • Monitor on psychology 43 http://www.teamscience.net http://www.teamscience.net

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - December 2011

Monitor on Psychology - December 2011
Letters
President’s Column
Contents
From the CEO
Willpower Pioneer Wins $100,000 Grawemeyer Prize
Single-Sex Schooling Called Into Question by Prominent Researchers
Maternal Depression Stunts Childhood Growth, Research Suggests
For Boys, Sharing May Seem Like a Waste of Time
Good News for Postdoc Applicants
In Brief
Treatment Guideline Development Now Under Way
Government Relations Update
Psychologist Named Va Mental Health Chief
The Limits of Eyewitness Testimony
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Time Capsule
Deconstructing Suicide
Questionnaire
A Focus on Interdisciplinarity
A Time of ‘Enormous Change’
The Science Behind Team Science
Good Science Requires Good Conflict
A New Paradigm of Care
Speaking of Education
Science Directions
New Labels, New Attitudes?
Psychologist Profile
Early Career Psychology
Unintended Consequences
Better Options for Troubled Teens
Saving Lives, One Organ at a Time
New Journal Editors
APA News
Division Spotlight
Guidelines for the Conduct of President-Elect Nominations and Elections
American Psychological Foundation
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - December 2011