Abstract
The effects of team consolidation and social integration on individual scientists’ activity and performance were investigated by analysing the relationships between these factors and scientists’ productivity, impact, collaboration patterns, participation in funded research projects and programs, contribution to the training of junior researchers, and prestige. Data were obtained from a survey of researchers ascribed to the Biology and Biomedicine area of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, and from their curricula vitae. The results show that high levels of team consolidation and of integration of the scientist within his or her team are factors which might help create the most favourable social climate for research performance and productivity. Researchers who carried out their activity in a social climate characterized by these factors participated in more domestic research projects and supervised more doctoral dissertations than the rest of their colleagues. They were also more productive, as shown by the higher number of papers published in journals included in the Journal Citation Reports and the higher number of patents granted. These metrics are the main indicators taken into account in the evaluation of the research activity of Spanish scientists, and are therefore the activities that scientists invest the most energy in with a view to obtaining professional recognition. The results corroborate the importance of research teamwork, and draw attention to the importance of teamwork understood not as two or more scientists working together to solve a problem, but as a complex process involving interactions and interpersonal relations within a particular contextual framework
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barbacid, M., Fernández, C. (2003), Investigadores en España. In: Guitérrez Fuentes, J. A., PUERTA LÓPEZ-COZAR, J. L. (Eds), Reflexiones sobre la Ciencia en España. El caso particular de la Biomedicina. Fundación Lilly and Medicina stm editores, Barcelona, pp. 89–110.
Carayol, N., Matt, M. (2004), Does research organization influence academic production? Laboratory level evidence from a large European university, Research Policy, 33: 1081–1102.
Cicyt (2000), National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Innovation 2000–2003. Volume I. Objectives and structure. Interministerial Commission for Science and Technology (CICYT, Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología), Madrid, 76 pp.
Cicyt (2003), The Spanish National Plan for Scientific Research, Development and Innovation for the period 2004–2007. Ministry of Science and Technology (Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología), Madrid. 145 pp.
Cohen, S. G., Bailey, D. E. (1997), What makes team work: group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the executive suite, Journal of Management, 23(3): 239–290.
CSIC (2003), Memoria 2002, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain.
de Lorenzo, V. (2000) La investigación biomédica. Arbor, 653: 17–36. Theme issue ‘El CSIC en los umbrales del siglo XXI’.
Dundar, H., Lewis, D. R. (1998), Determinants of research productivity in higher education, Research in Higher Education, 39: 607–631.
Espinosa de los Monteros, J., Larraga, V., Muñoz, E. (1996), Lessons from an evaluation of Spanish public-sector biomedical research, Research Evaluation, 6(1): 43–51
Fernández Esquinas, M., Pérez Yruela, M., Merchán Hernández, C. (2006), El sistema de incentivos y recompensas en la ciencia pública española. In: Sebastián, J., Muñoz, E. (Eds), Radiografia de la Investigación Pública en España. Red CTI and Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, pp. 148–206.
González de la Fe, T., González Ramos, A. M. (2006), Estructura y dinámica de la comunidad científica española. In: Sebastián, J., Muñoz, E. (Eds), Radiografia de la Investigación Pública en España. Red CTI and Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, pp. 99–121.
Gutiérrez Fuentes, J. A., Carrasco Mallén, M. (2003), Gestión de la investigación biomédica. In: Guitérrez Fuentes, J. A., Puerta López-Cozar, J. L. (Eds), Reflexions sobre la Ciencia en España. El caso particular de la Biomedicina. Fundación Lilly and Medicina stm editores, Barcelona, pp. 137–166.
Jennings, C. (1998), Citation data: the wrong impact? Nature Neuroscience, 1(8) (December 1998): 641–642.
Krohn, W., Küppers, G. (1990), Science as a self-organizing system. Outline of a theoretical model. In: Krohn, W., Küppers, G., Nowotny, H. (Eds), Self-organization — Portrait of a Scientific Revolution, vol. XIV, Yearbook in the Sociology of the Sciences. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 208–222.
Larraga, V. (2003), La pérdida de talentos cientificos en España, Working Paper no. 22. Fundación Alternativas, Madrid.
Long, J. S., Mcginnis, R. (1981), Organizational context and scientific productivity, American Sociological Review, 46: 422–442.
López Facal, J., Ugalde, U., Zapata, A., Sebastián, J. (2006), Dinámica de la política científica española y evolución de los actores institucionales. In: Sebastián, J., Muñoz, E. (Eds), Radiografia de la Investigación Pública en España. Red CTI and Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, pp. 21–70.
Moreland R. L., Levine J. M. (2001), Socialization in organizations and work groups. In: Turner, M. E. (Ed.), Groups at Work: Theory and Research. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, New Jersey, pp. 25–65.
Muñoz, E., Santesmases, M. J., ESPINOSA de los Monteros, J. (1999), Changing Structure, Organisation and Nature of Public Research Systems. Their Dynamics in the Cases of Spain and Portugal. Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados, CSIC, Madrid.
Rey-Rocha, J., Garzón-García, B., Martín-Sempere, M. J. (2006), Scientists’ performance and consolidation of research teams in Biology and Biomedicine at the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Scientometrics, 69(2): 183–212.
Rey-Rocha, J., Garzón-García, B., Martín-Sempere, M. J. (2007), Exploring social integration as a determinant of research activity, performance and prestige of scientists. Empirical evidence in the Biology and Biomedicine field, Scientometrics, 72(1): 59–80.
Smeby, J. C., Try, S. (2005), Departmental contexts and faculty research activity in Norway, Research in Higher Education, 46(6): 593–619.
Smith K. G. & al. (1994), Top management team demography and process: The role of social integration and communication, Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(3): 412–438.
von Tunzelman, N., Ranga, M., Martin, B., Geuna, A. (2003), The Effects of Size on Research Performance: A SPRU Review. SPRU, Science and Technology Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Worchel, S., Coutant-Sassic, D., Grossman M. (1992), A developmental approach to group dynamics: a model and illustrative research. In: Worchel, S., Wood, W., Simpson, J. A. (Eds), Group Process and Productivity. Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Martín-Sempere, M.J., Garzón-García, B. & Rey-Rocha, J. Team consolidation, social integration and scientists’ research performance: An empirical study in the Biology and Biomedicine field. Scientometrics 76, 457–482 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1866-x
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1866-x