Science and a Model for Scientific Collaboration

Abstract

Science is no longer a centralized activity located in a single place, but is dispersed far and wide. Hicks and Katz (1996) predicted that, in future, a piece of knowledge will be produced by more people in more locations. Increasingly it is carried out collaboratively in teams of individuals from different institutions and countries. The growing number of multiple-author publications (Hafernik et al., 1997) is an index of collaboration. As Whyte (1957, cited in Hagstrom, 1964) correctly said, the scientist is becoming an ‘organization man’, accustomed to working in groups, taking decisions in committees and conforming to the rules of the organization. Collaboration enhances competency, skills, and knowledge of the partners while ensuring the quality of research. It strengthens scientific activities and capabilities, and failure in collaboration weakens science and technical enterprise (Bozeman and Boardman, 2003b). The substantial fall in the costs of air travel and communication and advances in effective information and communication technologies (ICTs) have accelerated collaborative activities (Katz and Martin, 1997). In collaborative enterprises, the location of partners is becoming more dispersed (Adams et al., 2005). Distance is no longer a matter of serious concern in collaboration, although progress in ICTs has not taken place uniformly in all parts of the world.