DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38961
title: Research Exemplar Project, United States, 2017
title: Archival Version

description: The Research Exemplar Project was a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews followed by thematic analysis. In this study, 52 federally-funded researchers in the United States identified as exemplars by peers provided their perspectives on building effective, productive, and high-quality working relationships and research teams. The purpose was to study the behaviors, practices, and priorities the exemplars use to promote high-quality and impactful research and to uphold standards of research integrity and compliance in their research labs. These behaviors help to elucidate leadership and management practices that foster the production of excellent research. The analysis focused on thematic analysis of behaviors, practices, and individual characteristics reflected in the interviews. Quantitative demographic information such as age group, gender, academic rank, race, ethnicity, and education level was also collected.
description: The purpose was to study the behaviors, practices, and priorities that individuals recognized by the broader research community as exemplars use to promote high-quality and impactful research and to uphold standards of research integrity and compliance in their research labs.
description: Project investigators employed an exploratory design using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with participants.Participants were recruited through a nomination solicitation process from research institutions in the United States. The research team sent approximately 1,500 calls for nomination emails to academic deans, chairs, and research administrators at research-intensive universities ("highest" or "higher" by Carnegie classifications), accredited medicine and public health schools, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Program, in addition to principal investigators of centers funded by the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award program. Nominations were sought for U.S. federally-funded researchers in any career stage who performed high-quality, high-impact, federally-funded research and had reputations for professionalism and integrity. Nomination submissions included the nominee's curriculum vitae; a narrative detailing the nominee's research, professionalism, and integrity; and contact information for others for secondary endorsement.
A volunteer panel of 10 federally-funded researchers reviewed the nominations to select researchers to invite to participate and rated each nominee on research quality and demonstrated professionalism and integrity. The principal investigators reviewed all nominations and the panelists' ratings, additionally considering diversity of research disciplines, gender, and nation of birth. The final group of "research exemplars" (n=52) included highly accomplished researchers in diverse scientific disciplines.
Exemplars completed a brief demographic form and a phone interview lasting about 1 hour with study investigators. The research team used Dedoose software to analyze the transcripts. Inductive and causation coding were used to create a codebook to detail and refine themes and definitions as they emerged during the analysis.
description: Interview questions were grouped into the following themes:

Background information: motivations for pursuing a research career, description of research in non-technical terms, description of team/lab, and ethical/compliance/social issues that arise in research
Factors, habits, and practices that contribute to success and integrity: research personality/key traits; fostering rigor and reproducibility; supporting good working relationships; ensuring compliance with regulations, ethical rules, or good clinical practice; social responsibilities; managing stress, workload, and uncertainty; level of institution support
Key experiences/turning points that molded their conduct as a professional
Recommendation(s) for newer researchers


Pre-interview demographic items included gender, age group, academic rank, region of birth, race, ethnicity, and degrees obtained. Additional items in the survey asked about type(s) of research conducted, years of research experience, and research ethics instruction completed.
description: Purposive criteria sampling was used. 81 nominations were initially received, with 74 receiving at least one additional endorsement. 73 nominees agreed to conduct an interview if selected as a finalist. The investigators selected 55 exemplars; of those, 52 participated in the study.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Interview Data
DS2: Participant Demographics Data
description: Researchers in the United States funded by national funding agencies.
description: telephone interviewThis study is part of the Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) Qualitative Data Sharing (QDS) project.ICPSR has zipped the 52 interview transcripts in a qualitative data package (DS1), which is available for restricted download. The demographic data (DS2) has been released as received by the depositor, aside from changes made to reduce disclosure risk.For additional information on the Research Exemplar project, please visit the project webpage on the P.I. Program website.