Instructions for Submitting Corrections | 2022
On 22 December 2022, the NIH released a data file entitled Worldwide_2022, presenting its final compilation of all the funds it awarded during the 2022 federal fiscal year, which began on 1 October 2021 and ended 30 September 2022. Those data will serve as the basis for BRIMR’s 2022 rankings. As a first step, BRIMR has revised the NIH file to align with our ranking methodology and facilitate computerized analysis. Such revisions include standardizing the names of grantee organizations, fully capitalizing city names in case-sensitive formats, etc. BRIMR’s modified draft file is now available for public review and download.
BRIMR invites grantee institutions or investigators to review all listings for their own awards and to forward any proposed corrections by email to . The deadline for receipt of corrections by BRIMR is 6:00 PM EST on Sunday 5 February 2023. We anticipate that BRIMR’s final rankings will then be posted in mid-February.
Before submitting corrections, please consult our recent publication summarizing BRIMR’s ranking methodology, and keep the following guidelines in mind:
Reviewing Award Data
The goal is to correct errors, not to alter or “game” the rankings. As a rule, grants should be credited to the primary home department, school, and institution of the single named principal investigator (PI) of the award as reported to NIH. BRIMR’s methodology reflects NIH policy in most regards and strongly presumes the NIH Worldwide dataset is accurate.
For each award, look carefully at entries in the six columns that BRIMR uses for ranking purposes, namely:
Column A – ORGANIZATION NAME
BRIMR, like NIH, credits all funding for a given award to only one organization.
Column D – FUNDING MECHANISM
We do not include “R&D Contracts” in any rankings, but we do list them separately so any corrections are welcome. All other award types are weighted equally in our
rankings.
Column F – PI NAME
BRIMR, like NIH, credits all funding for a given award to only one PI, even for multi-PI awards. PIs are ranked in comparison to others who received awards
under the same department type (Column J) in a medical school (Column K), regardless of their individual training or specialty.
Column J – NIH DEPT COMBINING NAME
Standardized department types assigned by NIH for departments in Schools of Medicine only.
Column K – NIH MC COMBINING NAME
Standardized institution types assigned by NIH. BRIMR individually ranks only those classified as Schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, or
Veterinary Medicine in Column K, or as Independent Hospitals in Column U.
Column N – FUNDING
This is the total amount (direct+indirect) awarded during the single federal fiscal year in question, as reported in the NIH Worldwide file.
We also rely on columns P, Q, and U when ranking cities, states, and Independent Hospitals, respectively.
Minor variations in typography or format can affect how credit is assigned. Listing a PI’s name in different forms (e.g., with or without a middle initial or accented character, for example, or as John versus Jon or Jonathan) can lead to mis-attribution, as can crediting a grant to a center or institute rather than to the PI’s department. Be especially attentive to awards with data fields labeled as “NONE”, “UNAVAILABLE”, or “NOT ASSIGNED” or simply left blank, as these awards often cannot be ranked.
The NIH’s RePORTER search tool may be useful for cross-checking, but it often captures awards from non-NIH agencies such as CDC, FDA, HRSA, or the VA, as well as for NIH sub-projects, fund carry-forwards, prior fiscal years, and many other categories that do not qualify for inclusion in NIH’s Worldwide file or in BRIMR’s rankings. We use information from RePORTER only when it also appears in the annual Worldwide file.
Submitting Proposed Corrections
We strongly request that any revisions be submitted in a format exactly matching the relevant part of BRIMR’s posted file. This should include the line number(s) and should clearly highlight the proposed changes in all individual data cells affected. Please state your institution’s name in the subject line of your email as well as in the title of any attachment – entitling these as “BRIMR corrections”, for example, is not helpful for our record-keeping. We will acknowledge receipt of all requests; please feel free to check back if you do not hear from us within a few days.
Requests for corrections must be received by the stated deadline. Early submission is encouraged. Revisions will be made after the deadline only when they result entirely from an error on BRIMR’s part. We regret that not all proposed changes can be implemented, and that none will be applied to prior years. No changes will be communicated by BRIMR to the NIH – if you spot an error that is also present in the NIH’s master Worldwide file, your Institutional Signing Officer may contact NIH directly to correct it in future years as appropriate.
We are deeply grateful to all of the stakeholders whose careful attention to the source data each year helps us keep the BRIMR rankings as accurate, valid, and reliable as possible.
Facts are the enemy of truth.
~ Donald Quixote from the musical “Man of La Mancha“
The most powerful way devised by humans for finding new facts is the experimental method.
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