Conference: Historical Perspectives on Scientific Authorship, Cambridge, MA - March l997

作者身份是科学表彰和奖励制度的核心，但随着科学从个人的业余爱好转变为以合作增加为特征的专业职业，作者身份的含义发生了深刻的变化。事实上，在某些领域，例如实验高能物理或核聚变研究，论文可能通常由数十名研究人员撰写。本次会议的目标是通过研究不同的机构结构、学科实践、科学文献的体裁、社会政治背景、传播技术以及组织和责任模式来分析科学著作权的变化模式。这是重要和及时的，因为作者身份是当代对知识产权和科学不端行为的担忧的核心。此外，电子出版的出现将对传统的作者身份观念构成进一步的挑战。拟议的会议将聚集科学研究领域的主要学者，就这一主题的各个方面发表论文，并参与对新出现的问题的广泛、公开的讨论。这次会议已经得到了梅隆基金会和主办机构哈佛大学的部分支持。

Authorship is central to the recognition and reward system of science, yet the meaning of authorship has changed profoundly as science has changed from the avocation of individuals to a professional occupation characterized by increasing collaboration. Indeed, in some fields, such as experimental high-energy physics or fusion research, papers may be routinely authored by dozens of researchers. The goal of this conference is to analyze patterns of change in scientific authorship by examining different institutional structures, disciplinary practices, genres of scientific literature, socio-political contexts, techniques of communication, and patterns of organization and responsibility. It is important and timely, as authorship lies at the core of contemporary concerns about intellectual property and scientific misconduct. Further, the advent of electronic publishing will pose a further challenge to conventional notions of authorship. The proposed conference would draw together leading scholars in science studies to present papers on various facets of this topic and to participate in extensive, open discussion of emerging issues. The conference has already attracted partial support from the Mellon Foundation and from the host institution, Harvard University.