Weaving the native web: using social network analysis to demonstrate the value of a minority career development program

Abstract

Purpose: American Indian and Alaska Native scientists are consistently among the most underrepresented minority groups in health research. The authors used social network analysis (SNA) to evaluate the Native Investigator Development Program (NIDP), a career development program for junior Native researchers established as a collaboration between the University of Washington and the University of Colorado Denver.

Method: The study focused on 29 trainees and mentors who participated in the NIDP. Data were collected on manuscripts and grant proposals produced by participants from 1998 to 2007. Information on authorship of manuscripts and collaborations on grant applications was used to conduct social network analyses with three measures of centrality and one measure of network reach. Both visual and quantitative analyses were performed.

Results: Participants in the NIDP collaborated on 106 manuscripts and 83 grant applications. Although three highly connected individuals, with critical and central roles in the program, accounted for much of the richness of the network, both current core faculty and "graduates" of the program were heavily involved in collaborations on manuscripts and grants.

Conclusions: This study's innovative application of SNA demonstrates that collaborative relationships can be an important outcome of career development programs for minority investigators and that an analysis of these relationships can provide a more complete assessment of the value of such programs.

Figure 1

Visual representation of social network analyses for manuscripts produced between 1998 and 2007 by 29 current and former participants in the Native Investigator Development Program’s Web of Indigenous and Native Researchers (WINR). The figure indicates that AT, an affiliated faculty member, and AP, a member of the most recent cohort of Native Investigators, were isolates. (These and all other uppercase letters in the tables and figures were randomly chosen; the individuals’ actual initials were not used and remain confidential.) During the assessment period, these two individuals did not co-author any publications with others in the WINR group. For the remaining 27 individuals, no clear subgroups emerged, suggesting that WINR members collaborate across the entire network. At the same time, an examination of the width and number of lines reveals that both current core faculty (AY, AQ, AL) and secondary mentors (AS, AR, AN, AE) were heavily involved in WINR manuscript preparation. Many of those on the periphery (e.g., AZ, AI, AD), like AP, had completed only the first year of the program when these data were collected. See Table 2 for a numerical version of the results shown here.

Figure 2

Visual representation of social network analyses for 83 grant applications submitted between 1998 and 2007 by 29 current and former participants in the Native Investigator Development Program’s (NIDP’s) Web of Indigenous and Native Researchers (WINR). In the NIDP, involvement in grant applications begins only after manuscript development, so the number of isolates in grant productivity increased to 6. The figure shows that, of the 23 remaining nodes, those representing the most recent Native Investigators and affiliated faculty were typically found farther from the center of the diagram. Of note are the four highly connected individuals in a kite-shaped configuration at the center of the network (AY, AQ, AN, AL). These persons were in close proximity to one another and also, as denoted by the width of lines between the nodes, strongly bonded to others in the network. (These and all other uppercase letters in the tables and figures were randomly chosen; the individuals’ actual initials were not used and remain confidential.) See Table 3 for a numerical version of the results shown here.