reports
NIH Releases UNITE Progress Report for 2021-2022
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has released the inaugural progress report covering fiscal years (FY) 2021-2022 for the UNITE Initiative, the agency-wide program comprised of five committees charged with identifying and addressing structural racism within the NIH research community and the greater biomedical research enterprise (see previous COSSA coverage). This progress report is the first such report on the UNITE Initiative and aims to describe NIH’s actions since the Initiative’s establishment in 2021 in identifying and addressing structural racism as well as areas that still need to be addressed. The report cites actions that have been taken to address…
CNSTAT Releases Report on a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) recently released the report Toward a 21st Century National Data Infrastructure: Mobilizing Information for the Common Good. The report offers an ambitious vision and roadmap for bringing the U.S. data infrastructure in line with the nation’s need for reliable, accessible statistics and social and economic research. During a recent seminar celebrating CNSTAT’s 50th anniversary, CNSTAT Chair Robert Groves of Georgetown University offered additional context for the report, noting the convergence of increasing survey costs, all-time low response rates, and the unprecedented amount of digital data now…
National Academies Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education Release Year Three Annual Report
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released the Year Three Annual Report for the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education and held the Fourth Annual Public Summit last week. The report builds off of the 2018 report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (see previous COSSA coverage). The Action Collaborative focuses on raising awareness, sharing evidence-based policies and strategies, developing standards for measuring progress, and setting shared research agenda related to eradicating harassment in higher education settings. The Year Three Annual Report highlights the improvements the National Academies…
White House Releases Biennial Report on International Science & Technology Cooperation
In September, a subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a report on international collaboration related to science and technology. The report, which is a Congressionally mandated biennial document, identifies strengths and weaknesses of the U.S. approach to international scientific collaboration and offers recommendations on how to strengthen U.S. leadership in international science and technology. The report acknowledges that the U.S. remains a global leader in many areas of science and is successfully attracting and retaining talented foreign scientists. However, it also notes that other countries…
National Academies Release New Report on Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has released a new consensus study report titled Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge. The report offers a description of ontologies, or frameworks for organizing existing knowledge, and ways they can be used to support behavioral science. In addition, the report offers several recommendations for science stakeholders to best use ontologies to advance behavioral science research, including federal agencies and professional organizations. Some of these recommendations include: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) should create agendas for advancing behavioral science…
NSF Releases Report on Social Science Doctoral Recipients
The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), the principal statistical agency within the National Science Foundation (NSF), released a report on “Doctorate Recipients in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE).” The report is part of a series of profiles highlighting trends in education related to each of NSF’s seven research directorates. The SBE report presents data on doctorates received in psychology, economics, sociology, political science, and other social sciences from NCSES’s Survey of Earned Doctorates and Survey of Doctorate Recipients. The full report and associated data tables are available on the NCSES website. Back to this issue’s…
National Academies Release Report on Strengthening Support Systems for Military Families
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE) released a consensus study report on the social challenges affecting the families of military service members and potential solutions. The report covers a wide array of issues including the well-being of military families, demographic characteristics of military families, opportunities and challenges of military life, stressors affecting military children, high-stress events, and the efficacy of existing military family support systems. The report also illustrates several recommendations for the Department of Defense (DOD) to address these issues including standardizing definitions of “family well-being,” improving understanding…
Read COSSA’s 2018 Annual Report
COSSA’s 2018 Annual Report is out now. Check it out to learn more about COSSA’s activities and successes over the past year. Find out how your organization can become a member of COSSA on our website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
Academies Releases “Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12”
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released a new consensus study report, Science and Engineering for Grades 6-12: Investigation and Design at the Center. The report revisits the National Research Council’s 2006 America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science and reviews relevant research with a focus on how to engage today’s middle and high school students in science and engineering. This report provides guidance for teachers, administrators, creators of instructional resources, and leaders in teacher professional learning on how to support students. Recommendations center around changing science and engineering instruction to focus on investigation and design…
Academies Report Recommends Strategies to Address Sexual Harassment in Academia
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has released a new consensus study report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report details the impacts of sexual harassment in terms of damage to research integrity and loss of talent and argues that institutions should view sexual harassment as “equally important as research misconduct in terms of its effect on the integrity of research.” The report makes seven broad recommendations for how academic institutions can better address and prevent sexual harassment: address gender harassment (sexist hostility and crude behavior); move beyond legal…
Read COSSA’s 2017 Annual Report
COSSA’s 2017 Annual Report is out now. Check it out to learn more about COSSA’s activities and successes over the past year. Find out how your organization can become a member of COSSA on our website. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
OSTP Publishes Report on “Science & Technology Highlights” in the Trump Administration
Earlier this month, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a 12-page report detailing the “tremendous” science and technology achievements made during the first year of the Trump Administration. According to the report, OSTP “has built a robust team of over 50 staff members,” although the size of the office is less than 40 percent of what it was under the previous Administration, and the President has yet to nominate an OSTP Director or a science advisor. The report describes accomplishments, such as the awarding of Nobel prizes to National Science Foundation-funded scientists whose research was…
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Issues Perceptions of Science in America Report
On February 12, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a COSSA member, issued a new report assessing the current state of public trust for science in the U.S. Perceptions of Science in America is the first report to be issued as part of the Academy’s ‘Public Face of Science project, a three-year activity that looks to better understand and explain the complex relationship between the scientific community and the public. Drawing from existing public opinion survey data sources, including government and non-governmental surveys, the report identifies three main takeaways about the state of science among public audiences: (1) confidence in…
NSF Releases 2018 Science & Engineering Indicators
The National Science Board (NSB), the Presidentially-appointed advisory body to the National Science Foundation (NSF), has released the 2018 edition of its Science and Engineering Indicators, a congressionally-mandated compendium of data “relevant to the scope, quality, and vitality of the science and engineering (S&E) enterprise.” Published every two years, the indicators compile data on science and engineering education and the STEM workforce, international comparisons, and public attitudes toward science and engineering. Back to this issue’s table of contents.
NIJ Publishes Two Reports on School Safety
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and evaluation agency of the Department of Justice, has published two reports as part of their Comprehensive School Safety Initiative. This research-focused initiative began in response to high-profile incidents of school violence and aims to identify causes of school violence, increase school safety, and implement policies for safer schools. The two reports released on July 28 are Summary of School Safety Statistics, which includes data collected by researchers as well as federal agencies, and States’ Roles in Keeping Schools Safe: Opportunities and Challenges for State School Safety Centers and Other Actors, which…
NAM Releases Report: Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice’s Committee on Community-Based Solutions to Promote Health Equity in the United States recently released a report, Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity, which reviews the “state of health disparities and explores the underlying conditions and root causes that contribute to health inequity.” Highlighting the need for additional research, among the report’s recommendations is a call on the funders of research (government, foundations, and higher education) to “support research on (a) health disparities that examines the multiple effects of structural racism (e.g., segregation) and implicit and…
International Panel on Social Progress Releases Draft Report for Comment
The International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP) is an organization comprised of scholars in the social sciences and humanities from around the world with the goal of synthesizing the current scientific evidence on social change. The Panel has released 14 of 22 chapters of its draft report for public comment. The chapters cover topics such as “Social Justice, Well-Being and Economic Organization,” “Inequality as a Challenge to Democracy,” “Religions and Social Progress: Critical Assessments and Creative Partnerships,” and “How Can Education Promote Social Progress?” Feedback may be submitted on IPSP’s commenting platform. The Panel plans to collect comments through the…