The effective distribution of funds to sustain a productive and healthy research system is a key concern of funders and institutions. Governments and research funders commission reviews and set out strategies examining micro- and macro-determinants of research productivity. Research group structure is an important yet often overlooked factor of productivity, which is verified by bibliometric and qualitative studies.
Bibliometric approaches are powerful for exploring academic collaboration patterns based on authorship lists. However, authorship lists may deviate from actual research group membership. Conversely, this problem is less present in qualitative studies, but qualitative studies are unable to cover a wide and diverse range of groups and to scale their insights.
In collaboration with the University of Montreal, Canada, we implement a unique approach to exploring the relationship between organisational team structure and research output by combining administrative, bibliometric, and qualitative data, covering macro- (across entire institutions) and micro- (individual researchers’ experiences) level information. Unlike previous studies, we will use institutional administrative data to more accurately define research groups and their composition and supplement it with bibliometric data to explore how the organisational structure of research groups, structural dynamics, and demographics mixtures relate to research outputs. This quantitative work will be supplemented by qualitative research to elucidate possible mechanisms underlying these relationships and help identify key transition points in the structure of research groups which may need particular support.
Understanding the relationship between research group organisation and research outputs will help policymakers at universities, research institutes, and research councils:
- understand the implications of group structure and size on productivity and type of research produced;
- amplify the positive and mitigate the negative repercussions, and;
- potentially provide metrics to evidence research culture and inform the Research Excellence Framework (REF) People, Culture, and Environment (PCE) section.
