All authors are with the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
Am J Public Health. 2019 Nov;109(11):1535-1538. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305266. Epub 2019 Sep 19.
A confluence of challenges is impeding faculty members' ability to prioritize research with the goal of achieving a public health of consequence: research designed to improve conditions to produce a healthier society. Together, these challenges create a "churn" culture in which faculty focus on generating new business (i.e., grant funding and associated incentives) to replace lost revenue (i.e., expiring grants); this culture can relegate public health impact to a back seat.We share three strategies and related insights from our efforts to shift our department's cultural narrative from churn to a "scholarship of consequence": crafting research proposals of consequence, fostering thought leadership through collaborative writing, and mentoring faculty with a view to a scholarship of consequence.We describe each of the strategies and interim progress. Although they are a work in progress, we conclude that despite initial concerns, our evaluation metrics indicate improvement.
各种挑战阻碍了教职员工优先开展旨在改善健康状况以建设更健康社会的具有重要意义的研究的能力。这些挑战共同造成了一种“动荡”文化，教职员工专注于创造新的业务（即获得赠款资金和相关激励）以取代流失的收入（即即将到期的赠款）；这种文化可能会将公共卫生影响置于次要地位。我们分享了从动荡到“有意义的学术”的部门文化叙事转变的三项策略和相关见解：精心设计有意义的研究提案，通过合作写作培养思想领导力，以及指导教职员工追求有意义的学术。我们描述了每一项策略及其进展情况。尽管它们还在进行中，但我们得出的结论是，尽管最初存在担忧，但我们的评估指标表明情况有所改善。
