R. Mermelstein, K. Kobus, R. Clayton
Dec 1, 2007
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Influential Citations
7
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Journal
Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco
Abstract
Approximately one decade ago, two large initiatives in transdisciplinary science were launched. The first, the Tobacco Use Etiology Research Network (TERN), was established by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in 1996 as an experiment in knowledge development, and with the goals of bringing together a group of distinguished scientists from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to examine the etiology and trajectories of tobacco use from initiation to established use (Clayton, Merikangas, & Abrams, 2000). The second initiative was the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Centers (TTURCs), initially co-sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) with the first Request for Applications released in 1998. The RWJF contributed additional funding to the first set of seven centers funded by the TTURC initiative to enhance the science communications and policy relevance of the research conducted at the centers. Both of these initiatives grew out of the recognition that many of the fundamental research questions facing the field of tobacco use involve complex interacting factors at multiple levels, from physiological through social contextual, and that these questions could best be addressed through coherent programs of research that brought together investigators with different disciplinary backgrounds and approaches. The papers in this supplemental issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research highlight some of the scientific progress and results of these two major transdisciplinary research endeavors—the TTURCs and TERN The hope for the TTURC and TERN initiatives was that they might catalyze the speed of research development by producing new conceptual models and integration that are not usually found in traditional, unidisciplinary approaches (Abrams, Leslie, Mermelstein, Kobus, & Clayton, 2003). While the terms multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary are sometimes used interchangeably, their meanings are more distinct (Choi & Pak, 2006). Transdisciplinary science is recognized as being more than the gathering of scientists from various disciplines that occurs in multior interdisciplinary work; rather, it involves transcending disciplinary boundaries and allowing for a convergence of concepts and approaches, including novel methods, measures, and theories for conducting research (Rosenfield, 1992). Transdisciplinary scientific collaborations do not happen quickly or necessarily easily; they take effort, nurturing, and time. Morgan et al. (2003) describe the formation and early implementation stages, strategies and challenges of the TTURCs, and noted then that it will take a good 5–10 years after launching before one could expect innovative endproducts to appear. However, earlier signs of progress and success, such as publications in peerreviewed journals, have been abundant; both initiatives have excelled in this area. Stokols and colleagues (2003) provide a framework for evaluating the success of transdisciplinary collaborations such as the TERN and TTURC initiatives. Immediate markers include many of the goals and activities of the TERN and TTURC