How Does Information Get into the Knowledge Base?

1. The Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award Module 2, Class 2 A Teaching Module Developed by the Curriculum Task Force of the Sloan Work and Family Research Network

2. How Does Information Get into the Knowledge Base? • New information published in: • Working papers • Reports • Books • Scholarly Journals Each has advantages and disadvantages associated with them.

3. Peer Review Process & Knowledge Building • Description: Manuscripts submitted for publication are reviewed and critiqued by scholars with expertise in both content area and/or methods used by authors. • Purpose: To ensure that articles published in academic journals reflect “minimum standards” of quality

4. Peer Review Process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. • 1. Author becomes familiar with explicit and implicit expectations for articles published. • 2. Author drafts manuscript and submits it to journal editor. • 3. Editor sends manuscript to 2-3 scholars (typically). • 4. Usually, editor sends guidelines for review to reviewers. • 5. Reviewers comment on characteristics of article including: content, structure, clarity, and extent to which article makes a contribution to the body of literature. Reviewers recommend: that editors accept manuscript (as is or with minor corrections), that editors reject the manuscript, or that the author make substantial revisions to manuscript in line with the recommendations made by reviewers. • 6. If the author is asked to revise and re-submit, author may need to re-write sections of manuscript and/or conduct additional analyses. • 7. Hopefully, manuscript is published.

5. Why Do Awards Contribute to the Building of the Knowledge Base? Awards for excellence can: • Reinforce (and make explicit) standards of excellence for a specific discipline or field • Engage the interest of scholars who review the publications and then nominate some for the award • Provide a mechanism to focus the attention of scholars in the discipline/field to articles that might not have been noticed by them

6. Standards of Excellence for Assessing the Quality of an Article • Connection to theoretical perspective(s) • Connection to previous empirical studies • Rigor of research design (including sampling) • Operationalization of key concepts • Selection of appropriate measures • Use of appropriate analytic techniques • Generalizability of findings • Contribution to knowledge base • Important implications for future research, policy-making, practice • Clarity and relevance of information contained in each section of the article • Article well-written Not restricted to a particular method

7. Purpose of the Kanter Award • “This award raises awareness of high quality work-family research among the scholar, consultant and practitioner communities. It fosters debate about what the standards of quality for work-family research should be, and ultimately will raise those standards. And it identifies the ‘best of the best’ on which to base future research.”

8. Procedure for the Kanter Award • Structure of the Review Committee • Journals Reviewed • Qualifying Articles • Three round peer review process (nominees, first round, second round) The criteria used by the reviewers is posted on the web pages of the Kanter Award: http://www.cfs.purdue.edu/CFF/pages/kanter/award_procedures.html.

9. Typical Structure of Research Articles • Abstract • Introduction • Review of State of Knowledge • Research Questions • Methods (sample, measures, analytic techniques) • Findings • Discussion • Conclusion (limitations, implications) • References