New behavioral and social science grant-application review panels work 'astonishingly well'

The National Institutes of Health's (NIH) revamped grant-application review system appears to be working well, providing fair review for all types of behavioral and social science research, say NIH staff and scientists involved in the first round of review.

NIH put the new grant-application review panels, better known as study sections, in place last fall for applications submitted in November and reviewed in June and July. The study sections integrated the behavioral and social science study sections at NIH's Center for Scientific Review (CSR) and those traditionally run independently by the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). CSR study sections conduct most grant reviews for all the NIH institutes but when NIMH, NIDA and NIAAA joined NIH in 1992 they retained their own internal review system.

Over the past several years, NIH has worked with the scientific community to integrate these institutes' reviews into CSR as mandated by Congress. In contrast, the other NIH institutes have always sent most of their applications to CSR for review.

Because NIH is largely considered to favor the biological sciences, many behavioral and social scientists dreaded the transition from the old NIMH, NIDA and NIAAA study sections to the integrated study sections, fearing the new system wouldn't represent the breadth and depth of behavioral research and that scientists traditionally funded by NIMH, NIDA and NIAAA wouldn't get a fair review at CSR.

But the reviews went well, say CSR officials as well as researchers involved in the review process.

"It turned out more happily ever-after than we ever thought it would," says University of Southern California psychologist Elizabeth Zelinski, PhD, who chaired the new study section on memory and cognition--Behavioral and Biobehavioral Processes-4.

As a researcher who studies memory and cognition as people age, Zelinski was concerned about NIH's move away from study sections organized around the life span --one study section, for example, focused on all types of research related to psychosocial aspects of aging. Instead, the study sections are theme-centered, looking at issues such as memory and cognition or language across the life span.

"Going in, one concern by [researchers who study] either end of the life span was that the more mainstream psychological researchers might not respect the developmental side of the spectrum," says Zelinski. "In reality there was an astonishing level of cooperation and respect. I was expecting knock-down drag-out fights about the importance of different types of research, but I had nothing to worry about."

In fact, without consciously trying, the study section that Zelinski chaired gave equivalent scores to research in child development, aging and mainstream memory and cognition.

Initial reports in from other study sections have been equally positive, says Anita Miller Sostek, PhD, CSR's chief of Behavioral and Biobehavioral Processes review. Many researchers say they like the study sections better, she reports. And CSR staff are finding it easier to identify homes for various grant applications because of the breadth of topics covered by the study sections.

Membership in the study sections, however, is not yet final. Over the next year, institute and CSR staff will keep an eye on the review process to determine the actual subject matter that comes to each review group and to ensure that all research is reviewed competently and fairly. NIH will finalize the membership of review panels after two or three rounds of review, making adjustments as necessary. And after about a year, NIH will evaluate the study sections more rigorously.

"There's a great deal of learning that will be done from the first several rounds of review," says Sostek.

Researchers can access descriptions of the study sections and sample rosters of study section members on the NIH web page at www.csr.nih.gov/review/bss.htm.

--B. Azar



Read our privacy statement and Terms of Use

Cover Page for this Issue

PsychNET®
© 1999 American Psychological Association

APA Home Page . Search . Site Map