The development, validity, and reliability of the Researcher Investment Tool

Abstract Background: Over the last two decades, there have been significant investments designed to advance clinical and translational research (CTR) with an emphasis on supporting early career investigators and building a cadre of skilled researchers. Despite the investments, there are no compreh...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Brenda M. Joly, Carolyn Gray, Kassandra Cousineau, Karen Pearson, Valerie S. Harder
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press 2025-01-01
Series:Journal of Clinical and Translational Science
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866124006733/type/journal_article
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract Background: Over the last two decades, there have been significant investments designed to advance clinical and translational research (CTR) with an emphasis on supporting early career investigators and building a cadre of skilled researchers. Despite the investments, there are no comprehensive measurement tools to track individual-level progress along the research continuum as supports are put in place. Objective: The Researcher Investment Tool (RIT) is a novel tool that was created to provide a consistent approach for measuring individual-level changes in the research career trajectory of investigators receiving support from CTR programs. Methods: The RIT is a 90-item questionnaire, with eight domains and four sub-domains, designed to measure a researcher’s experiences and perceptions. Several rounds of testing were conducted to assess the tool’s face and content validity as well as the internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Results: Psychometric testing revealed strong content validity and good internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.85 to 0.97 across all domains. Test-retest reliability results also revealed stability in the domain measures over time with Pearson’s correlation coefficients ranging from 0.70 to 0.98 for all but one domain (.53). Conclusions: This novel RIT may be useful to evaluators when measuring the impact of investments designed to support early career clinical and translational researchers.
ISSN:2059-8661