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Indicators of Successful Submissions to the Law and Social Science Program of the National Science Foundation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Harmon M. Hosch  and
Matthew W. Oliveri
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Abstract

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This article examines the overall success of 1,428 proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation's Law and Social Science Program between 1986 and 1997. On average, proposals were successful 30% of the time. The research examined a number of variables that might have influenced the success rate. The type of institution in which the Principal Investigator (PI) was employed and from which the proposal was submitted, the number of years since the PI had earned his or her Ph.D., and membership in the Law and Society Association at the time the proposal was submitted were significant factors. Variables that were not predictive of success included membership in the American Psychology-Law Society, the gender of the PI, and the type of institution from which the PI earned his or her terminal degree. Finally, persistence is a valuable strategy; proposals resubmitted for consideration after having been declined were more likely to be funded.

Type
Symposium on Sociolegal Scholarship
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , 1998 , pp. 515 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © 1998 by the Law and Society Association

Footnotes

The authors thank Ms. Judy Rose of the Law and Society Association for her assistance in obtaining membership information used in this project and Dr. Stuart Plattner for comments on an earlier version of this article. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the National Science Foundation or the United States government.

1

See Cole (1991) for a discussion of experimental replication of NSF funding decisions in chemical dynamics, economics, and physics.

2

For the methodology, see the Appendix.

3

Overall funding rate includes proposals for conferences, training and other projects consistent with NSF's mission but that are not strictly research activities.

4

See Appendix for classification scheme.

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