Documenting Multi-Institutional Collaborations: A Case Study in Physics

多机构合作--例如，由多所大学的团队在国家实验室进行的一项实验--对现代科学技术的进步变得越来越重要。尽管这些短暂的“微型机构”很重要，但人们对如何记录它们知之甚少，而且尚未获得此类团队的有意义的记录，以供历史学家、社会学家和其他研究这一研究过程的人使用。该项目是美国物理研究所物理学史中心正在开展的一个长期项目的第一个项目，该项目旨在研究多机构在物理和相关科学领域的合作文件所面临的复杂问题。这项研究将确定协作模式，定义文档问题的范围，现场测试可能的解决方案，并建议未来的行动。除了自身的丰富经验外，该中心的工作人员还将与档案管理员、科学技术历史学家和社会学家一起参与这项工作。他们将得到杰出的科学家、管理人员和其他专家的建议。这项初步研究的重点是高能物理。未来的研究将集中在空间科学和地球物理领域。这项长期研究将越来越多地探索将项目成果应用于其他科学和技术领域，并制定政策和准则，以改进今后的文件编制。

Multi-institutional collaborations -- for instance, an experiment run at a national laboratory by a team from a number of universities -- have become increasingly important to advances in modern science and technology. Despite the significance of these transitory "mini-institutions," little is known about how to document them and meaningful records of such teams have not yet been secured for the use of historians, sociologists, and others studying the research process. This project is the first of a long term project being undertaken by the American Institute of Physics Center for History of Physics to study the complex issues facing the documentation of multi-institutional collaborations in physics and allied sciences. This study will identify patterns of collaboration, define the scope of the documentation problems, field-test possible solutions, and recommend future actions. Adding to its own extensive experience, the Center staff will be joined in this work by archivists, historians of science and technology, and sociologists. They will be advised by distinguished scientists, administrators, and other specialists. The focus of this initial study is high-energy physics. Future studies will be in the areas of space science and geophysics. The long-range study will increasingly explore the applications of the project findings to other areas of science and technology and the development of policies and guidelines to improve future documentation.