Progress Toward Achieving Systemic Change: A Five-Year Status Report on the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative

In September 2011, the Association of American Universities launched a major initiative to improve undergraduate STEM education. The overall objective was to influence the culture of STEM departments at AAU institutions so that faculty members are encouraged and supported to use teaching practices proven by research to be effective in engaging students in STEM education and in helping students learn. Progress Toward Achieving Systemic Change provides a five-year status report on the AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Initiative.

AAU APLU Guide to Accelerate Public Access to Research Data

The Association of American Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) have collaborated and led national discussions to improve public access to data resulting from federally funded research. As part of the NSF-funded (NSF # 1939279) Accelerating Public Access to Research Data Initiative, AAU and APLU convened representatives from the university teams at an Acceleration Conference in 2020 and facilitated two national Summits to help universities create robust systems for ensuring effective public access to high-quality research data and develop the current Guide. The Guide has been informed by 261 campus representatives from 111 institutions, representatives from several federal agencies, and other key stakeholders. The Guide is designed to help institutions develop and promote systems to support sharing of research data. It provides advice concerning actions that can be taken to improve access to research data on campuses. It also contains information about the infrastructure and support that may be required to facilitate data access, and it offers specific examples of how various institutions are approaching challenges to sharing research data and results.

Collection Development for Librarians in a Hurry: A Survey of the Physics Resources of the Libraries of the Association of American Universities

This study is an examination of the databases, websites, journals, and monograph titles most frequently included in the library resource guides of 65 well-regarded research institutions. Through an analysis of library resource guides, this study enumerates the resources most frequently recommended to the physics community for study and research. Open access resources, such as arXiv, SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), and INSPIRE, are among the most included titles. Notably, websites of professional organizations and governmental agencies are also frequently named. The study is meant to assist librarians in developing and maintaining collections to recommend to the physics community.

Contribution of Training to Scientists’ Public Engagement Intentions: A Test of Indirect Relationships Using Parallel Multiple Mediation

This article investigates the impact science communication training has on engagement intentions through a parallel multiple mediation model. Theory of planned behavior variables for internal efficacy, response efficacy, norms, and attitudes are examined as potential mediators. Based on a survey of randomly selected scientists from universities in the Association of American Universities, results indicate indirect effects for internal efficacy and attitudes toward the audience and consistent direct effects found in earlier research. This research provides a more comprehensive examination of how communication training contributes to scientists’ public engagement activity.

APLU AAU Accelerating Public Access to Research Data Workshop Report

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Association of American Universities (AAU), with support from the National Science Foundation, convened the Accelerating Public Access to Research Data Workshop on October 29-30, 2018. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a venue for learning, sharing, and planning (campus roadmaps) to support research universities as they create and implement institutional and cross-institutional strategies and systems to provide public access to research data. It also provided a forum for participants to hear from federal agencies concerning their current activities and plans regrading data access. To date, institutional efforts to provide public access to research data have lacked coordination. Additionally, a long-term multi-institutional strategy for data access has been slow to develop due to the complexities of data management and the decentralized nature of the research enterprise. Access to data presents a particularly difficult challenge given the technical knowledge required and the variation in data creation and use across disciplines. While providing the public with access to taxpayerfunded research data is challenging, it will ultimately speed the pace of scientific advancement and innovation and strengthen research integrity. The workshop and report, together with prior and subsequent engagement by APLU and AAU, will help to accelerate public access to research data.

Examining Processes of Normative Isomorphism and Influence in Scaled Change Among Higher Education Intermediary Organizations

This study examines the Association of American Universities Undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) initiative and the ability of a national organization and its member institutions to reshape norms about the importance and value of teaching and dedicated efforts to teaching improvement. The study is framed with literature from institutional theory, meso-influence theories from organizational theory, and research on higher education intermediary organizations. Our findings suggest that Association of American Universities’ influence was a powerful motivator for institutions to alter deeply ingrained perceptions and behaviors. We organize our findings into three categories of “enactments” based on the vehicles through which an influence behavior is motivated: prioritization, social pressure, and recognition. This study was able to provide concrete descriptions for what influence can look like within national organizations that are organizational field actors.

Starting the Conversation: Are Campus Sexual Assault Policies Related to the Prevalence of Campus Sexual Assault?

One goal of university campus sexual assault (CSA) policies is to help prevent CSA. Federal guidance in the 2014 White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault Checklist for Campus Sexual Misconduct Policies suggests 10 elements for inclusion in CSA policies (e.g., Policy Introduction, Grievance/Adjudication), and outlines policy topics to be included within each element (Policy Introduction includes two topics: statement of prohibition against sex discrimination including sexual misconduct and statement of commitment to address sexual misconduct). However, no research has examined whether CSA policies impact CSA prevalence. To begin addressing this gap, we studied 24 universities participating in the 2015 Association of American Universities Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct. We linked 2014-2015 data from these universities’ CSA policies and their CSA prevalence findings from the 2015 Association of American Universities (AAU) survey. To test whether the comprehensiveness of schools’ CSA policies was related to schools’ CSA prevalence, we examined the degree to which the CSA policies included recommended policy content from the aforementioned Checklist. Policies were characterized as more comprehensive if they included greater numbers of Checklist topics. We then correlated the number of topics within the policies with school-level CSA prevalence. We also explored whether there was lower CSA prevalence among schools with policies containing particular topics. Results suggested that greater comprehensiveness of schools’ entire CSA policies was negatively correlated with CSA prevalence; however, these findings did not approach statistical significance. The number of negative correlations observed between schools’ CSA policy elements and CSA prevalence among undergraduate women was greater than expected by chance alone, suggesting a possible connection between comprehensive CSA policies and CSA prevalence. Schools with policies that included a topic on their sexual assault response team had the lowest CSA prevalence for both women and men, and schools that included topics describing grievance/adjudication procedures had lower CSA prevalence. This study provides a novel examination of CSA and could inform needed research related to the impact of CSA policies on CSA.

Becoming more transparent: Collecting and presenting data on biomedical Ph.D. alumni

For more than 20 years, panels of experts have recommended that universities collect and publish data on the career outcomes of Ph.D. students. However, little progress has been made. Over the past few years, a handful of universities, including those in the National Institutes of Health’s Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training consortium, and organizations, including the Association of American Universities and the Association of American Medical Colleges, launched projects to collect and publish data on biomedical Ph.D. alumni. Here, we describe the outcome of a meeting, convened by Rescuing Biomedical Research, of universities and associations working to improve the transparency of career outcomes data. We were able to achieve consensus on a set of common methods for alumni data collection and a unified taxonomy to describe the career trajectories of biomedical Ph.D.s. These materials can be used by any institution, with little or no modification, to begin data collection efforts on their Ph.D. alumni. These efforts represent an important step forward in addressing a recommendation that has been made for decades that will improve the ability of trainees to better plan for their careers and for universities to better tailor their training programs.

Becoming more transparent: Collecting and presenting data on biomedical Ph.D. alumni

For more than 20 years, panels of experts have recommended that universities collect and publish data on the career outcomes of Ph.D. students. However, little progress has been made. Over the past few years, a handful of universities, including those in the National Institutes of Health’s Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training consortium, and organizations, including the Association of American Universities and the Association of American Medical Colleges, launched projects to collect and publish data on biomedical Ph.D. alumni. Here, we describe the outcome of a meeting, convened by Rescuing Biomedical Research, of universities and associations working to improve the transparency of career outcomes data. We were able to achieve consensus on a set of common methods for alumni data collection and a unified taxonomy to describe the career trajectories of biomedical Ph.D.s. These materials can be used by any institution, with little or no modification, to begin data collection efforts on their Ph.D. alumni. These efforts represent an important step forward in addressing a recommendation that has been made for decades that will improve the ability of trainees to better plan for their careers and for universities to better tailor their training programs.