Reporting of faculty time: an accounting perspective

Controversial federal regulations requiring universities to report 100 percent of the activities performed by faculty members encounter severe theoretical difficulties of allocation that pervade accounting and that at present are insoluble. Yet it is only natural for universities and government agencies to desire that such allocations be made. Accounting practitioners have faced such reporting dilemmas for generations; their experiences suggest ways of palliating the federal requirements.     

Four years of reagan science policy: notable shifts in priorities

Administration priorities for federal support of nondefense research and development emphasize basic research and the concomitant training of students. In 4 years basic research has moved from the smallest to the largest component in nondefense R & D expenditures, and basic research specifically to universities has grown by 26 percent in real terms during that period. New programs for fiscal year 1985 emphasize engineering education and research, as well as improved interactions between universities, federal laboratories, and industry.     

Corrections and clarifications

The 1994 and 1995 federal science budget appropriations for two of the activities were inadvertently transposed in a table that accompanied the article "Hitting the President's target is mixed blessing for agencies" by Jeffrey Mervis (News & Comment, 14 Oct., p. 211). The correct figures for Defense Department spending on university research are $1.460 billion in 1994 and $1.279 billion in 1995; for research and development at NASA, the correct figures are $9.455 billion in 1994 and $9.824 billion in 1995.     

Science and the university

The federal government-university relationship in scientific research has been eroded by excessive, unthinking regulations for the purposes of accountability. The Office of Management and Budget's Circular A-21 continues to jeopardize the quality of government-sponsored research in universities by demanding wasteful, meaningless work-load documentation. These regulatory demands must be revised to reflect the realistic obligations of accountability by a leadership capable of transcending special interests. Mutual respect between government and universities must be restored to achieve a partnership that helps better the national life while also protecting the integrity of the scientific faculty and its mission.     

Federal support of research in the life sciences

Federal support of contract and grant research in the life sciences continued to grow during the period 1952-55 and showed an increase of 28 percent between the years 1954 and 1955. The basic biological science component (Table 2) increased from $18 to $26 million between 1952 and 1954 and to $30 million in 1955. Although a greater dollar amount is now available for basic research in the life sciences, the amount available in 1955 was proportionately a smaller part of the total than was the amount available in 1954. In 1955, $52 million was expended for activities which were not categorized as basic research. The needs and motivations of the major granting federal agencies are, and continue to be, primarily problem-and program-oriented.     

CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES: Funding of 2000 Slots Sets Off Musical Chairs

Four months before it goes into effect, a $605 million program to help Canadian universities attract and retain the best scientific talent has ignited a furor within Canadian academe. Research-intensive universities have begun aggressively shopping for prospective candidates, using the new chairs as bait. Smaller universities say that has left them fending off talent raids.     

Clinical trial stirs legal battles

A lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1982 by two private ophthalmologists and seven prospective patients charges a group of academic physicians with attempting to monopolize radial keratotomy, a surgical procedure for correcting myopia, by labeling it experimental and urging restraint in its use. The parties have agreed to a settlement involving a payment of $250,000 by the defendants and a statement that the procedure is effective in qualified patients and should no longer be considered experimental. A second suit, brought by nine physicians in federal court in Chicago in June 1984, accuses the American Academy of Ophthamology of attempting to control the procedure. The broader issue at stake is how new surgical prdocedures should be evaluated before they are brought into widespread use. In the case of radial kerototomy, a large-scale clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute is proceeding as planned despite the legal controversy.     

The process values of university research. A new research funding system is needed for federal support of the process values of university research

The process values of university research are important in the context of several significant social and economic trends in American life. These values are being taken into account in the design and administration of federal programs. Federal programs to support these values should be distinguished from programs to support the product values of research. Failure to distinguish between these two types of programs will lead to a further dilution of quality in programs designed to advance science as a legitimate end in itself. The scientific community can best protect its own interests by helping federal agencies and universities and colleges develop a funding system to support the process values of university research on a cooperative, regional basis.     

Research policy. Report tracks federal funding in each state

Maryland is the most research-intensive state in the country, according to a new report that describes in unprecedented detail where the federal government's annual $80 billion research budget is spent. Its authors hope the report will raise public awareness about research as well as inform politicians.     

Federal funding of basic research: the red tape mill

Federal regulations and concerns about accountability for public funds have added greatly to the administrative burden associated with federal support of research at universities. Much of the added burden is viewed as unnecessary and counterproductive by the scientists and administrators who must bear the load. They feel that funds and effort intended for research are being diverted and wasted. The various types of costs are reviewed, including some thoughts as to their origin and estimates of their magnitude. Topics covered include project versus programmatic support, the indirect cost game, accountability, federal regulations, and the bureaucratic syndrome. There are no simple solutions, but several promising initiatives have been taken and more should be forthcoming.     

Scientific misconduct. How prevalent is fraud? That's a million-dollar question

How often does scientific misconduct occur? There seems to be no consensus on the answer, although a range of estimates were presented at a conference called last month by a key federal watchdog agency to announce a $1 million grants program to investigate the prevalence of fraud, data fabrication, plagiarism, and other questionable practices in science. The 8-year-old Office of Research Integrity hopes to support studies gauging the frequency of misconduct and assessing efforts to raise ethical standards.     

加强专项经费管理,提高资金使用效率

科技文献信息专项经费是我国建设科技基础大平台的重要组成部分 ,主要用于构件国家科技文献保障体系 ,以满足经济增长和科技进步对数据、资料和信息的需要。本文介绍了对科技文献信息专项经费的管理措施 ,收到的效果及作者在工作中的体会 ,并提出了进一步加强专项经费管理的对策和建议。     

Natural philosophy in the constitution

The natural philosophers who wrote the U.S. social contract held the advancement of science to be the supreme exercise of citizen sovereignty. The rising nation, in the late 19th century, established the seat of that sovereignty in its universities. Today those institutions have come to be regarded as contract research centers at the service of the federal government. Research contracts in support of the proposed Strategic Defense Initiative are pressed on them against the consensus of the scientific community that holds this "Star Wars" enterprise to be technically infeasible. The time has come to reconstruct the relation between the federal government and university science in the spirit of our social contract.     

How Much Research?: The educational aspect is crucial in justifying further growth in research

In conclusion, I believe the components which I have discussed constitute an outline of a sound program for federal support of science in universities, which provides first, a basic minimum of funding proportional to the growth of the research student population, and second, a pattern of grants based upon justified need and individual merit for more costly instruments, post-doctoral appointments, and other factors that allow our best scientists to be more productive. In addition, there is, of course, the array of major national facilities and programs, each judged individually, in fields requiring very costly equipment.     

Universities and the new national effort

In reassessing the role of government, many Americans have agreed that public expenditures should be curtailed. Although our universities must bear their full share of the sacrifices, some of the Administration's recent proposals would be to the detriment of the country. Drastic cuts in student aid, for example, will not encourage young people to seek the best possible education and training; reductions in federal funds for scientific instruments and facilities will mean that our laboratories will deteriorate, our accomplishments will be fewer. The success of American science has depended heavily on the talent that came from Europe at the time of World War II. Today that source has largely disappeared, and if we cannot replace it with exceptional young investigators of our own, the quality of our universities and the vitality of our science will diminish.     

Federal funding in materials research

The performance of the 20 materials research laboratories (MRL's) at universities funded with institutional grants by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration is evaluated in comparison with 15 other universities (non-MRL's) receiving individually funded projects for materials research. Performance is measured by peer review and citation frequency analysis of publications, subjective evaluation of research achievements and researcher reputation by a panel of experts, review of equipment purchases and utilization, and analysis of administrative costs. The study concludes that there are no significant differences between the MRL's and non-MRL's with respect to innovation, interdisciplinarity, utilization of specialized equipment, concentration of funding, rate of tumover, duration of research areas, and level of effort per research paper. The MRL's have a greater number of major achievements and attract researchers with higher reputations. The MRL's tend to emphasize experimental work, and in about 70 percent of the materials research areas sponsored by the National Science Foundation there is no overlap between the two groups. Institutional grants involve much less total (federal plus university) administrative cost per grant dollar than project grants.     

Scientific fraud probed at AAAS meeting

Fraud in science was the topic of a panel discussion at the 1985 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Participants identified competitive pressures in universities for promotion and financial rewards in the form of research grants as encouraging fraudulent practices. An excessive emphasis in some laboratories on publication was also held responsible for fraud or other misconduct that increases a scientist's list of citations. Among the suggestions put forward for solving the problem were more careful screening of applicants for research positions, stricter laboratory supervision, longer-term federal grants, and limitations on the number of his or her papers that a researcher is allowed to cite in grant applications.     

土工格栅石笼在古城河整治工程中的应用研究

阐述了土工格栅石笼在古城河整治工程中的应用及其工艺要求,并通过对比的方式,说明了土工格栅石笼在节省投资及生态保护上的优点。     

SALARY SCALES OF TRAINED MEN AND WOMEN

A comparison of salary scales of trained men shows rather clearly at the present time that (1) The pay scale of endowed and state universities and agricultural colleges is approximately like that of the commissioned officers of the army and the navy, but lacks the advantage of the retiring pension of three fourths pay. This pension often relieves the military and naval officer of the necessity of saving for old age. The saving required of the academic man to give him an equivalent retiring fund is not practicable at the present salary scale. (2) It shows that the academic salary scale is appreciably lower than that of the professional and scientific services of the national government at Washington. The retiring allowance of the government employee, though small, and in part contributed by the employee himself, gives him a distinct advantage. (3) The salaries of all groups above mentioned are very much lower than those paid in manufacturing enterprises to positions above the wage-earners. In order to make a concrete comparison, I will enumerate the positions that on the average command salaries of $3,000, $6,000 and $9,000 respectively in these different lines of work.     

IlasⅡ图书馆系统自动备份实践

介绍了利用Sco Unix5．06的cron定时执行功能、自编的脚本文件及网上下载的免费ftp软件“Serv U”实现ⅡasⅡ图书馆系统异步自动备份的方法和步骤,此法适合于经费有限的中小型图书馆采用。