These reports and publications include those led by OBSSR, those developed with OBSSR’s financial or staff support, and key government reports on behavioral and social sciences, including workshop reports and special issues commissioned by OBSSR.

Prioritizing Research on Social Determinants of Health-"Yes, and…"
December 2024 | This commentary published in JAMA Internal Medicine and co-authored by three directors within NIH, including OBSSR Director Jane M. Simoni, Ph.D., emphasizes the urgent need to expand research on social determinants of health (SDoH) to address disparities and improve population health outcomes. It encourages fuller integration of SDoH into research studies to develop holistic and impactful solutions while highlighting NIH’s commitment to advancing SDoH research and outlining ongoing initiatives.

Representation of Social Determinants of Health Terminology in Medical Subject Headings: Impact of Added Terms
November 2024 | This study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, evaluates the impact of adding new social determinants of health (SDoH) terms to Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) on the quality of PubMed search results. By integrating 35 high-priority SDoH terms, the researchers observed significant improvements in the accuracy and relevance of search outcomes, measured through precision, recall, and F metrics. The findings demonstrate a methodology for updating MeSH indexing to better reflect behavioral and social sciences research terminology, thereby enhancing the utility of PubMed for investigators and clinicians. This study underscores the importance of refining behavioral and social sciences research (BSSR) representation in indexing systems to strengthen the cumulative knowledge base. The research was supported by OBSSR and the publication was co-authored by OBSSR staff members.

The Future of Scientific Conferencing Proceedings
November 2024 | In June 2024, OBSSR hosted a virtual workshop titled “The Future of Scientific Conferencing.” This event brought together multi-disciplinary leaders to discuss the future of scientific conferences and meetings. The workshop aimed to facilitate interdisciplinary communication and networking, identify cross-cutting scientific gaps, and inform practical strategies for designing effective, engaging, and sustainable scientific conferences and meetings. The workshop proceedings outline key considerations for creating effective scientific conferences and meetings.

Analysis of the Health Economics Portfolio Funded by the National Institutes of Health in Response to Published Guidance
February 2024 | Health economics, an interdisciplinary science supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), aligns with NIH’s mission to improve health. In 2015, NIH published guidance to clarify its funding priorities for health economics research. This analysis aimed to determine if there were changes in the number of health economics applications received and funded by NIH after the release of the guidance. Health economics applications submitted to NIH, both before and after the guidance, were identified using a machine learning approach with input from subject matter experts. Application and funding trends were examined by fiscal year, method of application (solicited vs. unsolicited), and activity code. This study found that submission and funding rates for health economics research applications were decreasing before the release of the guidance but increased after the guidance was published.

Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions
April 2023 | This report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) examines the evidence for behavioral economics and its application in six public policy domains: health, retirement benefits, extreme weather events, social safety net benefits, education, and criminal justice. The report concludes that the principles of behavioral economics are indispensable for the design of policy and recommends integrating behavioral specialists into policy development within government units. In addition, the report calls for strengthening research methodology and identifies research priorities for building the field. The report was sponsored by OBSSR and other National Institutes of Health Institutes and Centers.

The Future of Work: Behavioral and Social Science-Informed Considerations for a Hybrid Work Environment
November 2022 | This report, developed by a team of OBSSR staff, provides behavioral and social science-informed considerations for developing and maintaining virtual and hybrid work environments. The goal of this report was to explore key areas that impact workplace development and effectiveness and well-being in virtual and hybrid work environments, including 1) ensuring accessibility, 2) recruiting and retaining an excellent workforce, 3) creating a psychologically healthy work environment, 4) increasing digital literacy, 5) cultivating leadership, 6) enhancing motivation and engagement, 7) minimizing disruptions and distractions, 8) fostering collaboration and innovation, and 9) building and maintaining effective teams. The report also recommends key considerations for future research directions to meet the needs of today’s modern workforce.

Ontologies in the Behavioral Sciences: Accelerating Research and the Spread of Knowledge
July 2022 | This National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine consensus study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, including OBSSR, and other agencies. It is directly related to supporting OBSSR’s priority of building a cumulative knowledge base across the behavioral and social sciences. Ontology development and use will support more rigorous and reproducible research, accelerate the reuse of data, and foster more effective communication between scientists and across scientific disciplines.

Integration of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH Council of Councils Working Group Report
May 2022 | | This report to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director and the Council of Councils responds to the House of Representatives request in the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill 2021 (H. Rpt. 116-450). The bill directed NIH to “complete an assessment providing recommendations on how to better integrate and realize the benefits to overall health from behavioral research at NIH.” In response, the NIH Council of Councils established a working group to examine the integration of behavioral and social sciences at NIH. This report summarizes the working group’s recommendations.

US Opioid and Pain Crises: Gaps and Opportunities in Multidisciplinary Research
February 2022 | This supplement issue of the American Journal of Public Health brings together various perspectives to enhance the interpretation and understanding of the social and behavioral aspects of the opioid and pain crises. Through multiple commentaries, the supplement includes insights from legal, government, research, advocacy, lived experience, military, and racial disparity viewpoints.

Archived Reports and Publications

Best Practices for Systems Science Research
December 2021 | This document emerged from a day-long workshop hosted at the National Institutes of Health on April 18, 2016. The workshop gathered experts in this area, including OBSSR’s Drs. William T. Riley and Michael Spittel to discuss best practices in systems science research. Consensus statements of best practices were agreed upon and an outline of these statements was drafted by the group. This outline was then expanded and refined by the lead authors, with guidance from the editors, as well as feedback and agreement from the advisory board. The remainder of the paper is organized around the topics or statements that the workshop members agreed constituted a set of best practices for the field. This set of best practices is meant to establish a baseline set of evaluation criteria to assure that systems science produces insights that are useful, feasible, credible, and ethical.

Ending Sexual Harassment in Science: Designing and Administering a Survey That Can Lead to an Improved Organizational Climate
November 2021 | The National Institutes of Health (NIH) developed and administered the 2019 NIH Workplace Climate and Harassment Survey to assess harassment incidence and identify organizational climate factors that contribute to sexual harassment in scientific research environments. Using best practices in survey design, NIH created a rigorous assessment tool to inform prevention efforts. This Academic Medicine journal article outlines the survey’s design and administration process and highlights three key resources developed to support scientific institutions in adopting a data-driven approach to harassment assessment and prevention. These include a document detailing survey development and methodology; a survey implementation guide; and key survey findings from NIH, including recommendations for improving organizational climate and addressing survey limitations. The article is co-authored by OBSSR staff.

NIH-Wide Research Opportunities in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences: National Institutes of Health Council of Councils Working Group Report
May 2021 | This report to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director and the Council of Councils follows up on the 2004 report, "Research Opportunities in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences (bBSSR)." While support for bBSSR has strengthened in recent years, critical gaps remain, along with emerging and promising areas that warrant increased attention from NIH. The agency can enhance its workforce initiatives by not only incorporating bBSSR but also applying insights from the broader behavioral and social sciences workforce. Additionally, NIH should address the extensive scientific approaches and infrastructure needs of bBSSR to further advance the field.

A Communicator’s Tip Sheet for COVID-19 Vaccination
December 2020 | This is “A Communicator’s Tip Sheet for COVID-19 Vaccination.” It highlights some recommended dos and don’ts for COVID-19 vaccination communication.

COVID-19 Vaccination Communication: Applying Behavioral and Social Science to Address Vaccine Hesitancy and Foster Vaccine Confidence
December 2020 | This report, which was developed in consultation with leading experts in social and behavioral sciences and public health, outlines evidence-informed communication strategies in support of national COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts across federal agencies and their state and local partners. The report offers concrete recommendations for targeted and tailored communication. The recommendations are based on three intersecting considerations: What is being communicated, Who is the target of the message, and How the message is communicated.

The Childhood Obesity Evidence Base Project
September 2020 | This special supplement of the journal Childhood Obesity introduces a novel taxonomic approach to obesity prevention, leveraging existing U.S. studies. The research outlines a method for deconstructing and reaggregating study data to identify effective obesity intervention strategies and the conditions under which they succeed. This collaborative effort between Mission Measurement and the National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research (NCCOR) was funded by OBSSR.

NIH-funded CBPR: Self-Reported Community Partner and Investigator Perspectives
April 2019 | This evaluation of the National Institutes of Health’s community-based participatory research portfolio recounts the progress of 489 projects funded between 2004 and 2013, including perspectives from principal investigators and community partners from those projects who were willing to participate in survey research.

The Selection of Comparators for Randomized Controlled Trials of Health-Related Behavioral Interventions: Recommendations of an NIH Expert Panel
February 2019 | This paper presents a recommended process for arriving at different comparator choices by adopting the Pragmatic Model for Comparator Selection in Health-Related Behavioral Trials. The process is represented in a decisional flow chart accounting for the acceptability, feasibility, formidability, relevance, stringency, and uniformity of the choice. The purpose and phase of the trial are contextually considered to account for the primary objective of the trial, significant barriers to or limitations in implementation, and optimization of the comparator.

Contributions of Social and Behavioral Research in Addressing the Opioid Crisis (Full Summary)
March 2018 | This meeting summary focuses on specifying key actionable social and behavioral science findings that can be used immediately to address the opioid crisis, and identifying critical short-term (as well as potential mid-term and longer-term) research priorities that have the potential to improve the opioid crisis response.

Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
September 2017 | These workshop proceedings summarize the presentations and discussions from the workshop on how to update graduate training in the social and behavioral sciences. This workshop, hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, was supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Self-Regulation of Appetite—It's Complicated
March 2017 | This special issue reviews evidence regarding known mechanisms affecting appetitive behavior and suggests targets for novel interventions to help control weight status. Multiple systems are considered: biologic, psychologic, neural, environmental, and policy mechanisms and influences. The effects of mechanisms and their interactions are discussed to identify pathways and targets to impact eating behavior and inform interventions.

Special Issue on eHealth and mHealth: Challenges and Future Directions for Assessment, Treatment, and Dissemination
December 2015 | This special issue is intended to promote a discussion of “eHealth” and “mHealth” and their connection with health psychology. "eHealth" generally refers to the use of information technology, including the internet, digital gaming, virtual reality, and robotics, in the promotion, prevention, treatment, and maintenance of health. "mHealth" refers to mobile and wireless applications, including text messaging, apps, wearable devices, remote sensing, and the use of social media, in the delivery of health-related services.

The Cultural Framework for Health: An Integrative Approach for Research and Program Design and Evaluation
November 2015 | This report provides methods and tools for research project design to illuminate project-salient cultural processes, health-related behaviors, and culturally specific concepts of health and well-being.

Educational Attainment and Adult Health: Contextualizing Causality
February 2015 | This special issue, sponsored by OBSSR, in the journal Social Science & Medicine highlights some of the leading questions explaining the connection between education and health.

Capturing Social and Behavioral Domains and Measures in Electronic Health Records: Phase 2
January 2015 | This National Academy of Medicine, formerly the Institute of Medicine, report identified a parsimonious panel of social and behavioral measures for use in electronic health records (EHRs) that is comprehensive, interoperable, and efficient. These "psychosocial vital signs" include four measures that are already widely collected (race/ethnicity, tobacco use, alcohol use, and residential address) and eight additional measures (education, financial resource strain, stress, depression, physical activity, social isolation, intimate partner violence, and neighborhood median household income). The committee concluded that the health benefits of addressing these determinants outweigh the added burden to providers, patients, and health care systems in including these psychosocial vital signs in EHRs.

Review of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Opportunities Innovations in Population Health Metrics
July 2014 | This meeting summary brought together thought leaders to discuss the state of behavioral and social sciences and identify the essential elements required to increase the contribution of the field to innovations in population health metrics and improved health.

Capturing Social and Behavioral Domains in Electronic Health Records: Phase 1
June 2014 | OBSSR, in collaboration with federal and nonfederal partners, asked the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) to identify domains and measures that capture the social determinants of health. The goal was to inform recommendations for Stage 3 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). This Phase 1 report outlines specific domains for consideration by the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC), criteria for selecting which domains to include, core social and behavioral domains for all EHRs, and additional domains relevant to specific populations or settings based on factors such as age, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and disease.

Education and Health: New Frontiers (Meeting Summary)
June 2014 | This workshop, hosted by OBSSR, brought together clinicians and researchers in education and health to identify opportunities and gaps in the field and to develop strategies to ensure that education and health research remains a national priority. Among the most pressing areas of research, include developing better measures of health outcomes, improving study designs, identifying mechanisms underlying the relationship between education and health, and considering contextual issues. This report highlights the themes from the presentations and discussion at the meeting.

New Methods for Advancing Research on Tobacco Dependence Using Ecological Momentary Assessments
May 2014 | This special issue of Nicotine & Tobacco Research, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and OBSSR, is devoted to collecting and analyzing data from ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies to collect real-time tobacco use and dependence data in real-time settings. EMA methods have particular utility for understanding tobacco use because they enable microanalyses of use and can shed light on how behavior unfolds over time.

Advancing Scientific Inquiry by Blurring Research Boundaries
October 2013 | This special issue published in the American Journal of Public Health highlights research integrating public health, behavioral and social science, and genetics. This special issue was sponsored by OBSSR.

The History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Lecture Series: 1995–2013
September 2013 | This report summarizes the OBSSR lecture series (1995–2013), which highlighted a range of disciplines, approaches, and disease areas in the behavioral and social sciences.

Qualitative Assessment of the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Portfolio—Interviews with Institute Staff and Personnel from Selected Professional Societies
August 2013 | This report summarizes findings from qualitative interviews with NIH Institute and Center staff, as well as external experts, on their perspectives regarding the evaluation of the NIH Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (BSSR) portfolio for FY2007–FY2011.

The Arts and Aging: Building the Science
February 2013 | This report summarizes the proceedings, observations, and recommendations from the 2012 workshop on "Research Gaps and Opportunities for Exploring the Relationship of the Arts to Health and Well-Being in Older Adults."

U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health
2013 | OBSSR, the National Institute of Aging, and the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) commissioned this report to better understand the differences between high-income countries, particularly regarding mortality and slowing life expectancy among those aged 50 in the United States. The report compared 16 "peer" countries from the late 1990s to 2008. The United States' health outcomes were attributed to nine domains in which it fared worse than the peer countries: adverse birth outcomes, injuries and homicides, adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS, drug-related mortality, obesity and diabetes, heart disease, chronic lung disease, and disability.

Best Practices for Mixed Methods Research in the Health Sciences 
August 2011 | This report provides guidance to NIH investigators on how to rigorously develop and evaluate mixed methods research applications.

Outcome Evaluation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's Pioneer Award (NDPA), FY 2004 - 2005
July 2011 | This report describes a companion volume of case studies to an evaluation to assess whether the outcomes of the NIH Director's Pioneer Award program were consistent with its original goals and to evaluate the impact of the NDPA on NIH and its funding of high-risk research.

Best Practices for Mixed Methods Research in the Health Sciences
Mixed Methods Supplemental Material
November 2010 | This handbook outlines an approach for the collection, analysis, and integration of both quantitative (e.g., RCT outcome) and qualitative (e.g., observations, interviews) data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of a research problem than might be obtained through quantitative or qualitative research alone. A 2018 update with sample NIH-funded mixed methods projects and references is included.

Behavioral and Social Sciences in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Education: A Workshop Summary
July 2010 | This report summarizes discussions from an OBSSR-hosted workshop on integrating behavioral and social sciences more actively in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational initiatives.

Behavioral and Social Sciences Training, Education, and Career Development in the Clinical & Translational Science Awards Program: A Workshop Summary
May 2010 | This report on a workshop of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards/Behavioral and Social Sciences (CTSA/BSS) Liaison Program (LP), aims to promote the education and training of behavioral and social scientists within the CTSAs.

Strategic Plan for Basic Behavioral Research
July 2008 | This report to Congress builds on agency-wide gap and portfolio analyses and suggests opportunities for future National Institutes of Health support.

Scientific Leadership Structure for Basic Behavioral Research
April 2008 | This report to Congress finds strong agency-wide support for basic behavioral research and recommends increased support from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives offices to promote basic behavioral and social sciences across the specific missions of the NIH Institutes and Centers.

Report of the Working Group of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director on Research Opportunities in the Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences
December 2004 | This committee report provides examples of emerging basic biopsychosocial topics that are likely to make important contributions to understanding and improving health outcomes.

NIH Plan for Social Work Research
May 2003 | This report, directed by Congress, is the National Institutes of Health’s plan for social work research, which identifies accomplishments and new research directions, enhancements in infrastructure and training, and opportunities for dissemination and community outreach.