Issue 7 (April 4)

Recently, Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA) Executive Director Wendy Naus spoke with Nadia Taeckens of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor’s independent student paper, The Michigan Daily, for an article on COSSA’s 2023 College & University Rankings for Federal Social & Behavioral Science R&D. For the second year in a row, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor topped COSSA’s rankings, beating out universities such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (see previous coverage). In the article, Naus states, “(COSSA has) been using federally collected data to develop the rankings since 2016, because we were really interested (to see) if there was a positive message that could be told to policymakers about how much money is going to their state and local universities for this research, and it turns out the numbers were really positive.”

The full article is available on The Michigan Daily website.

Lawmakers have left Washington for a two-week spring recess. Upon their return later this month, work will continue on several thorny topics, including negotiations to raise the debt ceiling and setting top-line funding limits for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills. Appropriations subcommittees could begin crafting spending legislation over the next couple months, and those measures may include significant cuts to discretionary spending, including for research. As previously reported, House Republicans are seeking to cut non-defense discretionary spending back to FY 2022 levels; however, such cuts will not be supported by the Democrat-controlled Senate, setting the stage for major funding standoffs later this year. Stay tuned to COSSA’s coverage of FY 2024 funding.

The National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking nominations for the 2023 James S. Jackson Memorial Award. This award, named in memoriam for previous University of Michigan Professor of Psychology and former COSSA president James S. Jackson, honors an outstanding researcher with demonstrated exceptional individual achievement and leadership in mental health disparities research.  Award recipients will also have shown excellence in mentorship, influence, and defined support of trainees.

Nominations will be accepted through May 10, 2023. Read more information about the award’s criteria, application, and selection process here.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) Societal Experts Action Network (SEAN) has released it’s latest rapid expert consultation, Addressing COVID-19 Related Challenges Facing Individuals Engaged in Precarious Employment. SEAN provides social, behavioral, and economic science researchers with resources to produce rapid-fire reports and recommendations to influence policy decisions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic (see previous COSSA coverage).

In this latest report, SEAN considers the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees in jobs that are considered to have low security, such as jobs with low wages and low benefits. The report found that employees in these positions had less access to benefits such as sick and family leave, wage loss prevention security, and government assistance. SEAN recommends the following strategies to protect employees in low security positions:

1. Expand access to unemployment insurance and paid sick leave for individuals that may not have previously qualified.
2. Improve state occupational health and safety regulations to ensure employees are not exploited in the workplace.
3. Engage community partners and work-centered organizations to increase education and training opportunities for employees to recognize exploitation.
4. Support health and well-being through expanding healthcare and mental healthcare services.
5. Improve data collection and data sharing through investing in data systems.

SEAN intends these recommendations to outline a safety net for employees in these low security jobs. SEAN will continue to produce reports to support evidence-based policy making relating to COVID-19. Follow COSSA’s continued coverage on the SEAN initiative.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) has released its second in an ongoing series of data infrastructure reports intended to modernize and enhance data collection (previous COSSA coverage). This latest report, Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Enhancing Survey Programs by Using Multiple Data Sources, builds off the first by discussing how using multiple data sources beyond sample surveys could improve the data collection for statistics and social and economic research, as well as data equity.

The report acknowledges several data sources that could improve data collection, including probability samples, administrative records, and private-sector data. CNSTAT also recognizes the need for quality control of data collection and recommends establishing a new framework of quality standards and guidelines to ensure quality control. The report emphasizes that using data from multiple different sources will improve data equity through piecing multiple data sets together to create a well-rounded, complete data set. The report adds that there are four key ways that these recommendations will improve data collection:

1. Creating a framework for quality control of data sources is expected to target populations that have been underrepresented, either from under sampling or lack of response.
2. Using multiple data sources is expected to reveal a link between survey data and other data sources to create disaggregated statistics.
3. Through expanding resources outside of sample surveys, these recommendations are expected to produce statistics for small populations that are often missed due to survey sample sizes.
4. By using administrative data, agencies will be able to create data products and produce statistics from the data.

CNSTAT emphasizes the need to focus on data equity when modernizing data infrastructure to ensure that underrepresented populations are included in data and statistics. The final report is expected to focus on data privacy and avoiding harm when collecting data. Follow COSSA’s continued coverage on CNSTAT’s Data Infrastructure report series.

COSSA is thrilled to welcome the California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) College of Social and Behavioral Sciences as its newest member! The CSUSB College of Social and Behavioral Sciences is the university’s primary school for the social sciences. CSUSB is a research university in San Bernardino, California and receives over $800,000 annually in federal social and behavioral science funding. COSSA’s full membership list can be found here. Information on how to join is on the COSSA website.