This paper examines how shared affiliations within an institution (e.g., same primary appointment, same secondary appointment, same research center, same laboratory/facility) and physical proximity (e.g., walking distance between collaborator offices) shape knowledge creation through biomedical science collaboration in general, and interdisciplinary collaboration in particular. Using archival and publication data, we examine pairwise research collaborations among 1,138 faculty members over a 12-year period at a medical school in the United States. Modeling at the dyadic level, we find that faculty members with more shared institutional affiliations are positively associated with knowledge creation and knowledge impact, and that this association is moderated by the physical proximity of collaborators. We further find that the positive influence of disciplinary diversity (e.g., collaborators from different fields) on knowledge impact is stronger among pairs that share more affiliations and is significantly reduced as the physical distance among collaborators increases. These results support the idea that shared institutional affiliations and physical proximity can increase interpersonal contact, providing more opportunities to develop trust and mutual understanding, and thus alleviating some of the coordination issues that can arise with higher disciplinary diversity. We discuss the implications for future research on scientific collaborations, managerial practice regarding office space allocation, and strategic planning of initiatives aimed at promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.

The CHI community has led efforts to support teamwork, but has neglected team disruption, as may occur if team members relocate to another institution. We studied moves in 548 interdisciplinary research projects with 2691 researchers (PIs). Moves, and thus disruptions, were not rare, especially in large distributed projects. Overall, one-third of all projects experienced at least one member relocating but most moves reflected churn across high-ranking institutions. When collaborators moved, the project was disrupted. Our data suggest that moves exemplify normal disruptions. A design challenge is to help projects adapt to disruption.

Science policy across the world emphasizes the desirability of research teams that can integrate diverse perspectives and expertise into new knowledge, methods, and products. However, integration in research work is not well understood. Based on retrospective interviews with 55 researchers from 52 diverse research projects, we categorized teams as co-acting (50%), coordinated (15%), and integrated (35%). Integration, when it existed, usually began when PIs chose collaborators and pursued integration throughout the project. We describe researchers' experiences and research climates that discouraged or encouraged integration. Implications for policy choices and design include changes in team structuring and technology support.

Many observers have praised new communication technologies for providing convenient and affordable tools for maintaining relationships at a distance. Yet the precise role of mediated communication in relationship maintenance has been difficult to isolate. In this paper, we treat residential moves as natural experiments that threaten existing social relationships and often force people to rely on mediated communication to maintain their old relationships. Results from a 3-wave survey of 900 residential movers describing 1892 relationships shows that email and the telephone play different roles in social relationships. Email helps maintain social relationships, in the sense that relationships decline when email drops after the move. However increases in email are not associated with increases in the depth of the relationship or exchanges of support. In contrast, phone calls help movers grow relationships and exchange social support.

Two recent studies of over 500 interdisciplinary research projects have documented comparatively poor outcomes of more distributed projects and the failed coordination mechanisms that partly account for these problems. In this paper we report results of an analysis of dyadic data from the most recent of these studies. The question we asked is, "Does prior experience with a collaborator reduce the barriers of distance or interdisciplinarity?" Analyses of 3911 pairs of collaborators found an answer: "In part, yes!" A prior project with a collaborator predicts greater strength of a current collaborative work tie. Prior experience also reduces the negative impact of distance and disciplinary differences. We discuss the implications of these results for CSCW, given the lack of evidence that today's technology eliminates collaboration barriers in distributed research.

In this paper we examine how routine uses of the Internet for communication with family and friends and for entertainment may serve as indicators of overall levels of psychological well-being. Changes in psychological well-being in response to a major life event, such as a residential move, can drive changes in routine uses of the Internet, suggesting Internet-based coping strategies. Specifically, women who report high levels of depressive affect, decrease internet use for communication. Men with similar levels of depressive affect increase internet use for entertainment. We discuss implications of these findings for our understanding of the role of the Internet in everyday behavior and instances of coping with stressful situations.

This panel will provide a forum for a discussion of important and timely issues surrounding the global deployment of cyberinfrastructure to support science and engineering research activities. Representatives of funding agencies, existing cyberinfrastructure projects, specific technologies and social scientists involved in the evaluation of these technologies will be brought together to address questions about the key obstacles to the operational deployment of cyberinfrastructure, whether or not cyberinfrastructure will improve research, and what the role of the CSCW community is and can or should be in this deployment.