3. Research Quality: Understanding Definitions of and Challenges to Quality in the Knowledge Production Process

Amy Koerber, Ph.D., is Professor in Communication Studies and Associate Dean for Administration & Finance in the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University. Dr. Koerber's research agenda explores how experts make effective arguments in contexts of health, science, and medicine. Toward this end, she employs multiple research methods, including textual analysis as well as interviews and focus groups. Although her doctoral training is based in classical rhetoric, her current research employs a wide variety of theoretical frameworks, and she is especially interested in scholarly approaches that facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge-making. Dr. Koerber’s last book, From Hysteria to Hormones: A Rhetorical History, was published by Penn State University Press in April 2018 and was awarded the President’s Book Award at Texas Tech University.

Karin Ardon-Dryer, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the Department of Geosciences at the Atmospheric Science Group at Texas Tech University. Before joining TTU she was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and later a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of System Biology at Harvard Medical School at Harvard University. Dr. Ardon-Dryer received her Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the Department of Geophysics, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, and the Porter School of Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Dr. Ardon-Dryer's main research is on the effect that aerosols (mainly dust particles) have on climate, the environment, and our health. In particular, she takes an interdisciplinary approach and combines field and laboratory work to investigate the interaction between humans and climate (e.g., impact dust storms have on human health) in the short and long term. As part of her role as Co-PI in the STEPP project, Ardon-Dryer was responsible for the STEM topic as well as the early career aspects of the project.

R. Glenn Cummins, Ph.D., is a professor of Journalism and Creative Media Industries at Texas Tech University. His research interests fall under the umbrella of media psychology and examine audience response to and processing of media as a function of message content, structure, and individual characteristics. His research has employed a variety of novel measurement approaches to studying individual cognitive and emotional processing of media messages, including psychophysiology, eye tracking, continuous response measurement, and more. He formerly served as Associate Dean for Research and Grants in the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech where he helped grow the College’s sponsored research goals and facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations between communication scholars and partners across and beyond the university. He has been part of research teams sponsored by the NSF and USDA.

Lyombe Eko, Ph.D., is a professor in the College of Media & Communication, Texas Tech University. His areas of research and teaching are comparative and international communication studies, as well as comparative information and communication technology law, policy, and ethics, with a focus on Africa, the European Union, the United States, France and the UK. He also studies visual communication, human rights, and freedom of expression. He has published award-winning books on comparative international communication law and policy. He has also published numerous, widely cited articles in international law review and media studies journals. He has been an associate professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of the African Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He has also taught at the University of Maine, Orono. He earned his Ph.D. in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Before his academic career, he was a journalist at Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), and an editor/translator, at the African Broadcasting Union (URTNA) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Kerk F. Kee, Ph.D., is Professor in the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech University. His research primarily focuses on information diffusion and innovation adoption in scientific organizations, and secondarily in health communities and pro-environmental societies. Broadly speaking, his research interests lie at the intersection of information dissemination, technology use, and scientific work. Besides the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research co-authored with colleagues in this book on predatory publishing, he is also working on an NSF project looking at designing an AI-driven platform and chatbot with algorithms to filter COVID-19 related publications based on different levels of evidence (e.g., meta-analyses vs. randomized controlled trials vs. editorials/expert opinions without empirical support), in order to help clinicians and medical professionals screen and rank a large amount of (mis/dis)information on COVID-19, a data deluge problem that became overwhelming during the pandemic. Kee received his Ph.D. in organizational communication from the University of Texas at Austin.