Understanding Conditions for the Emergence of Virtual Organizations in Long-Tail Sciences

先进的网络基础设施在促进科学领域新的合作范例和新形式的虚拟组织方面的潜力令人信服。然而，发展适当的网络基础设施必须考虑目标科学界的多样性、其文化和做法，以及社会和技术问题如何在特定用户群体的背景下相互作用。一些高度协作的领域在开发和采用网络基础设施方面一直是先行者。另一些(被称为“长尾科学”)遵循独立的小型研究小组的组织模式。这些领域的研究人员必须克服重大的认知、文化和制度障碍，以实现他们的合作潜力，并采用有利的网络基础设施。这个项目调查长尾科学从一系列不同类型的虚拟组织中受益的潜力。该项目采用一种结合了定量(网络分析)和定性(人种志)技术的创新方法，系统地调查了研究领域采用虚拟组织和支持它们的技术的不同认知和文化倾向。这个项目调查了所谓的“长尾”科学，其中的合作通常很小，并研究使这些领域的科学界能够从对新技术的投资中受益的社会和文化条件，以支持它们的合作。因此，该项目是对目前针对大规模合作的网络基础设施研究的补充，其特点是对科学领域进行了系统的比较研究。很少有这样的研究试图了解领域差异如何影响支持研究合作和科学交流的新技术的采用。目前还不清楚研究领域的相关区别特征是什么，也不清楚如何可靠地确定或构建用于这种比较的适当分析单位。通过系统地探索具体领域的差异，该项目有助于更深入地了解网络基础设施及其支持的虚拟组织必须为长尾科学提供什么，以及如果要采用它们，需要克服哪些具体领域的挑战。研究结果将有助于理解如何利用跨学科的网络基础设施来指导资金决定和发展工作。

The potential of advanced cyberinfrastructure to facilitate new collaborative paradigms and new forms of virtual organizations in science is compelling. However, development of appropriate cyberinfrastructure must consider the diversity of the target scientific communities, their cultures and practices, and how social and technical issues interact in the context of a specific user community. Some highly collaborative fields have been pioneers in the development and adoption of cyberinfrastructure. Others (termed "long-tail sciences") follow an organizational model of independent small research groups. Researchers in these fields would have to overcome significant epistemic, cultural, and institutional hurdles to achieve their collaborative potential and adopt enabling cyberinfrastructure. This project investigates the potential of long-tail sciences to benefit from a range of different types of virtual organizations. Employing an innovative methodology that integrates quantitative (network analysis) and qualitative (ethnographic) techniques, it systematically investigates the differential epistemic and cultural propensity of research fields to adopt into their research practices virtual organizations and the technology that supports them.This project investigates so-called 'long-tail' sciences, where collaborations are generally small, and studies the social and cultural conditions that enable scientific communities in those fields to benefit from investments into new technologies to support their collaborations. Thus, this project complements current cyberinfrastructure research directed at large-scale collaborations and is distinguished by conducting a systematic, comparative study of scientific fields. There are few such studies that seek to understand how field differences shape the uptake of new technologies supporting research collaboration and scientific communication. It is not clear yet what the relevant distinguishing characteristics of research fields are, nor how to reliably identify or construct the appropriate unit of analysis for such comparisons. By systematically exploring field-specific differences this project contributes to a deeper understanding of what cyberinfrastructures and the virtual organizations they support have to offer the long-tail sciences, and what field-specific challenges need to be overcome if they are to be adopted. The results will be relevant to understanding the use of cyberinfrastructure across the disciplinary spectrum to guide funding decisions and development efforts.