2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Hype in medical research funding applications
| Project/Area Number |
21K02919
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
Millar Neil 筑波大学, システム情報系, 准教授 (70751981)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | corpus lingusitics / scientific writing / research funding / research ethics / biomedical language |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Phase1: Recruitment of technical assistant. Installation of CQPweb analysis system on a cloud-based web-server. Processing of all records in the NIH RePorter archive to create a language an annotated corpus of grant abstracts. Installation of corpus into CQPweb system. Construction and installation of a physical web-server at the university of Tsukuba for hosting CQPweb in the future.
Phase 2: Analysis of changes in the use of promotional language (hype) in NIH grants abstracts. Identification of 139 hype terms that have increased significantly in frequency between 1985-2020. Preparation of a manuscript reporting these findings. Submission of manuscript to JAMA Network Open (IF: 8.48) - manuscript is currently under review.
Phase 3: Analysis of use of hype across grant type - ongoing.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The RA employed to provide technical assistance was able to construct the infrastructure necessary for this research earlier than anticipated (phase 1), allowing meaningful research (phase 2) to commence within two months of starting the project. The analyses of NIH abstracts over time showed increases in the use of hype which were far starker than anticipated. We believe that these findings are timely and will be of wider interest to the research community and, therefore, we were prompt in writing them up and submitting for review.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We have already commenced on phase 3 - assessing the factors that effect the use of hype in grant proposals. Currently we are assessing differences in the use of hype between different types of NIH grants (e.g. research, training, career, fellowships). On this, I am collaborating with Dr. Bryan Mathis at the Univeristy of Tsukuba, who has some expertise on the NIH. We will, in the future, assess the use of hype in terms of other factors including the size of the award and output in terms of publications.
In addition, we will soon migrate the CQPweb analysis system from the cloud-based server to our physical server.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Travel restrictions due to COVID 19 meant that travel was not possible. Article costs were higher than expected because in addition to renting cloud-based server space we have also installed a physical server. When we have relocated the analysis system to the physical server, the cloud-based system will no longer be necessary.
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