Mapping a research agenda for the science of team science

Abstract

An increase in cross-disciplinary, collaborative team science initiatives over the last few decades has spurred interest by multiple stakeholder groups in empirical research on scientific teams, giving rise to an emergent field referred to as the science of team science (SciTS). This study employed a collaborative team science concept-mapping evaluation methodology to develop a comprehensive research agenda for the SciTS field. Its integrative mixed-methods approach combined group process with statistical analysis to derive a conceptual framework that identifies research areas of team science and their relative importance to the emerging SciTS field. The findings from this concept-mapping project constitute a lever for moving SciTS forward at theoretical, empirical, and translational levels.

Figure 1. SciTS cluster map

Note: Two-dimensional map of the 95 final synthesized SciTS topic statements, grouped into seven clusters. Each numbered point represents one synthesized statement (a list of all statements organized by cluster is in Table 1). Statements closer to each other are considered to be more similar in meaning than statements further away from one another. The grouping (as defined by polygon-shaped boundaries) displays the statements into related clusters

Figure 2. SciTS concept map

Note: A comprehensive SciTS issues map showing labeled clusters and regions. Synthesized SciTS topic statements (refer to Figure 1) are no longer shown as individual points; rather, they are now grouped and represented by clusters (7), and then by regions (4). The average importance rating for each cluster is displayed inside the clusters