[spsp-members] New paper: toolkitting as unique expertise

[Laursen, Bethany]

Dear SPSP colleagues, toolkits continue to be a popular strategy for collecting and sharing resources for what works in inter- and transdisciplinary science. It takes a lot of effort to create, maintain, fund, use, and study toolkits well. How can we work smarter instead of harder?

Members of the Toolkits & Methods Working Group in the ITD Alliance<https://itd-alliance.org/working-groups/toolkits_methods/> have just published an article on this very topic. Of special relevance to this community, there is a section calling for the study of toolkitting since it is a unique form of scientific metawork:

Laursen, B., Vienni-Baptista, B., Bammer, G., Di Giulio, A., Paulsen, T., Robson-Williams, M., & Studer, S. (2024). Toolkitting: an unrecognized form of expertise for overcoming fragmentation in inter- and transdisciplinarity. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 11(1), 857. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-03279-9

Abstract: A growing number of inter- and transdisciplinary (ITD) toolkits provide methods, processes, concepts, heuristics, frameworks, and other resources for designing and implementing ITD research. A brief overview of the currently fragmented toolkits landscape is provided, fleshed out through descriptions of four toolkits. Fragmentation means that researchers are unaware of, and do not have access to, the full array of tools that could benefit their investigations. Overcoming fragmentation requires attention to toolkitting, which is the relatively overlooked bundle of practices involved in the creation, use, maintenance, funding, and study of toolkits. In particular, the processes and expertise involved in the creation, maintenance, and study of toolkits are described. Toolkitting as metawork can make resources more accessible, useful, and rigorous, enhancing ITD research. Future toolkitting can be strengthened with attention to key questions that can guide the activities of, respectively, toolkit creators and curators, scholars, and funders. Examining the toolkits landscape through the lens of toolkitting suggests that the development of a comprehensive, ongoing inventory is a first step in overcoming toolkit fragmentation. An inventory could also be the foundation for an even bolder initiative—a federated knowledge bank—that connects and develops the range of existing and future toolkits. The inventory and federated knowledge bank also provide a shared project to bring together the expertise of ITD toolkit creators, curators, users, funders, and scholars to achieve a step-change in enhancing ITD research.

Please let me know if you’re interested in toolkitting, the Toolkits & Methods Working Group, or the ITD Alliance. Happy to connect.


--BKL

____________________________
Dr. Bethany Laursen<http://www.bethanylaursen.com/>
Team Science Specialist
Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR<https://michr.umich.edu/>) | University of Michigan

Open Access Resources: Assessing Interdisciplinarity<https://aea365.org/blog/reflections-on-practicum-assignments-part-iii-supervisor-perspectives-by-marshall-bailly-assetou-barry-beverly-peters-danuta-dobosz-talatha-kiazolu-reeves-jillian-klarman-michael-petillo-and-2/>

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