Science of Science

Using data to study, understand, and quantify the mechanisms underlying scientific research

Researchers Working in this Area

Related Research Projects

Automated Indexing for Publication Types and Study Design

Time frame
2023-Present
Investigators
Neil Smalheiser, Jodi Schneider, Halil Kilicoglu
Total funding to date
$947,925.00
Funding agency
National Institutes of Health

This project aims improve upon a tool clinicians, researchers, and systematic reviewers use to retrieve biomedical articles from bibliographic databases. Associate Professors Halil Kilicoglu and Jodi Schneider will work with Affiliate Professor Neil Smalheiser, professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois Chicago, on the project, which has received funding from the National Institutes…

doctor typing on a laptop

CAREER: Using Network Analysis to Assess Confidence in Research Synthesis

Time frame
2021-Present
Investigator
Jodi Schneider
Total funding to date
$599,963.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Policy in areas such as conservation, energy, healthcare, and sustainable development is informed by a variety of factors, including the best available science. Determining the best available science requires synthesizing multiple scientific results to gauge both the level of scientific consensus and the reliability of the research. However, on some policy-relevant topics, syntheses continue…

network of dots

Computational Methods, Resources, and Tools to Assess Transparency and Rigor of Randomized Clinical Trials

Investigator
Halil Kilicoglu
Total funding to date
$1,328,502.00
Funding agency
National Institutes of Health

Randomized clinical trials are valuable in determining the effectiveness of health treatments. But problems with design, execution or reporting of the trial process can lead to unreliable findings, excessive costs, and, potentially, harm for patients. Associate Professor Halil Kilicoglu is leading a  team of computer/information scientists and clinical research methodologists in…

medicine

DataONE (Observation Network for Earth)

Time frame
2013-2017
Investigator
Bertram Ludäscher
Total funding to date
$416,623.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is a collaborative, global project that is laying the groundwork for a new, innovative approach to conducting environmental science research. DataONE is a distributed framework and sustainable infrastructue poised to resolve many of the key challenges that hinder the realization of more global,…

Identifying Potential Bias in Science Using Citation Network Structures

Time frame
2020-2022
Investigator
Jodi Schneider
Total funding to date
$29,960.00
Funding agency
Campus Research Board

Biased citation benefits authors in the short-term by bolstering grants and papers, making them more easily accepted. However, it can have severe negative consequences for scientific inquiry. The need for a bias detection tool is evident from previous studies on citation bias, but existing work lacks crucial elements needed to scale the underlying approaches. This project will test the…

abstract science concept

National Forum Data Mining Research Using In Copyright and Limited Access Text Datasets Shaping a Research and Implementation Agenda for Researchers Libraries and Content Providers

Time frame
2017-2019
Investigator
Bertram Ludäscher
Total funding to date
$99,536.00
Funding agency
Institute of Museum and Library Services

Copyright law and resource licensing complicate the application of text data mining for research. This project convened a National Forum on Text Data Mining with Use-Limited Data in April 2018 that brought together 25 leading stakeholders selected among researchers, librarians, content providers, legal experts, and representatives of scholarly societies to articulate an agenda that provides…

text mining icon

Natural Language Processing to Assess and Improve Citation Integrity in Biomedical Publications

Time frame
2022-Present
Investigators
Halil Kilicoglu, Jodi Schneider
Total funding to date
$300,000.00
Funding agency
Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

This project will assist researchers and journals in evaluating citation behavior in biomedical publications. While citations play a fundamental role in the diffusion of scientific knowledge and assessment of research on a topic, they are often inaccurate (e.g., citation of nonexistent findings, inappropriate interpretation). This inaccuracy undermines the integrity of scientific literature…

journals spines

Rapid Prototyping of Semantic Enhancements to Biodiversity Informatics Platforms

Time frame
2014-2018
Investigator
Michael Twidale
Total funding to date
$421,200.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Taxonomists are scientists who describe the world’s biodiversity. These descriptions of millions of species allow scientists to do many different kinds of research, including basic biology, environmental science, climate research, agriculture, and medicine. The problem is that describing any one species is not easy. The language used by taxonomists to describe their data is complex, and…

Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science II: Research and Development towards the Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern

Time frame
2022-Present
Investigator
Jodi Schneider
Total funding to date
$249,998.00
Funding agency
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

This project is intended to reduce the real and perceived danger to science and society when retracted research is mistakenly circulated within the digital scholarly record. The goal is to build more confidence in scientific discovery. Retraction alerts readers to unreliable scholarly material and is intended to remove that information from the citable record. Harm can result when faulty…

retracted science

Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science: Shaping a Research and Implementation Agenda

Time frame
2020-2022
Investigator
Jodi Schneider
Total funding to date
$174,981.00
Funding agency
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

When retracted papers are cited both before and after retraction, the scientific publication network inadvertently propagates potentially faked data, fundamental errors, and unreproducible results. Schneider's project will bring together a variety of stakeholders, including funders, editors, peer reviewers, authors, and publishers for interviews and a workshop. In addition to investigating the…

retracted science

RIDIR: Collaborative Research: Developing and Deploying SKOPE - A Resource for Synthesizing Knowledge of Past Environments

Time frame
2016-Present
Investigator
Bertram Ludäscher
Total funding to date
$884,627.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Recent research has demonstrated that investigations of contemporary societal problems can benefit from the use of long-term environmental data and from comparisons with cases in which the interactions of human societies with their environments is well-documented over centuries. By providing easy access to time- and place-specific long-term environmental data, this project seeks to facilitate…

Pueblo village

Towards Reliable and Optimized Data-driven Cyber-Physical Systems using Human-centric Sensing

Time frame
2021-2024
Investigator
Dong Wang
Total funding to date
$543,087.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

Full title: CAREER: Towards Reliable and Optimized Data-driven Cyber-Physical Systems using Human-centric Sensing

Participatory science has opened opportunities for many to participate in data collection for science experiments about the environment, local transportation, disaster response, and public safety. The nature of the collection by non-scientists on a large scale carries…

human-centric sensing

Workforce Training: A Quasi-Experimental Approach Using the Effects of Research Funding

Time frame
2013-2017
Investigator
Vetle Torvik
Total funding to date
$175,918.00
Funding agency
National Science Foundation

This project examines the impact of different research funding structures on the training of future scientists, particularly graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and the impact on their subsequent outcomes. Our proposed research begins by examining the way in which research (and most training) is funded and done. We classify projects by whether they are large or small scale (by funding…

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