Analyzing the Status of Korea’s Research Funding Institutions and the Characteristics of Funded Projects in the Field of Child Studies

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the status of Korea's research funding institutions and the characteristics of funded research projects in the field of child studies. Methods: Subjects were 440 Korea's research funding institutions registered on the FundRef Registry and 138 projects funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea in the field of child studies, from 2000 to July 2018. Descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, and t-test were used for the statistical analysis. Results: Findings revealed that 126 of the Korean research funding institutions registered on the FundRef Registry (28.6% of the total) supposed to be able to fund research projects on child studies. An analysis of the characteristics of the 138 funded projects on child studies revealed the following findings. Most projects were related to child development, were funded under the Mid-career Researcher Program, and they entailed a 1 year long research. With reference to characteristics of the researchers, it was observed that 52.5% of the projects were accomplished by researchers funded at once. From all of the funded researchers, funded experience mean was 2.7 as a primary researcher and 0.9 as a joint researcher. Further, mean number of papers published by them was 15.9 and their impact factor mean was 260.3. The most frequent research topic was relational analysis among variables related to social development. Young children and children from multicultural families frequently participated in the projects. The cross-sectional research method and change analysis were used increasingly. Conclusions: These results suggest the need for information to stimulate researchers to attend funding programs and to increase their research competency.