Background:
The ROPES Hub, in collaboration with staff at Virginia Tech Libraries, conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) in 2023 to examine publications related to the S-STEM program since it began in 1998, with a focus on engineering and computer science. We used a comprehensive search strategy that included relevant terms and award numbers. This initial search yielded 12,952 potential matches. After screening the titles and abstracts, we performed a full-text review on 643 items. From these, 335 publications met our inclusion criteria, and we extracted relevant information from these selected works. Our current SLR includes papers published in 2022 or earlier; we will update the dataset with new papers regularly.
Characteristics of the Publications:
The data revealed a significant increase in the number of S-STEM-related publications over time, indicating growing interest and research in this area. Conference papers and proceedings were the main outlet for overviews of the S-STEM program; research and evaluation papers were split between conferences and journal articles.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Top Conferences:
ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (N=232)
IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (N=20)
ACM technical symposium on CS education (N=8)
Top Journals:
Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research (N=9)
CBE Life Sciences Education (N=4)
S-STEM Program Characteristics:
Most of the publications in our review focused on undergraduate students. Besides targeting low-income students, many of the S-STEM programs also aimed to attract female, Hispanic, and Black students. These programs included a variety of activities, with cohort-building activities, specialized courses for S-STEM students, and recruitment events being the most common. On average, each program offered 6.7 different activities.
 |
 |
 |
Partnerships:
Partnerships played a crucial role in these S-STEM programs. Twenty-two percent of the publications focused specifically on partnerships, and 98% mentioned at least one partnership. Other higher-education institutions were the most common inter-organizational partners. Additionally, the programs often included intra-organizational partnerships across various areas of the college or university. On average, each publication referenced 4.4 partnerships.
 |
 |
Characteristics of partnering institutions:
For each publication, we identified the higher ed institutions that were involved in the partnership, yielding 450 institutions (some schools were involved in multiple publications, and many publications included multiple schools). We linked each school to IPEDS data, in order to provide an overview of the general characteristics of these institutions.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Data and framework used in research/evaluation publications:
For the 111 papers focused on research or evaluation, the most commonly reported data types were from surveys and student interviews. Relatively few of these papers identified a theoretical framework, but student-focused theories dominated the list.
 |
 |
2024 Report (PDF):
SLR Dataset (XLSX):