Recipes for Scientific Success

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Why are some scientific papers particularly influential? What social factors lead to the creation of research papers that significantly impact scientific research and practice? Social scientists have a long history of studying which factors promote or impede scientific success and influence. However, traditional explanations for variation in scientific influence overlook scientists' own perceptions, even though incorporating social actors' own understandings is critical to a complete explanation. This project, co-funded by the Science, Technology, and Society program and the Science of Innovation and Science Policy program, examines the topic of scientific success by capitalizing on a unique and underutilized data source: essays solicited by the Web of Science and written by authors of influential scientific papers ("Citation Classics"). In these essays, scientists reflect upon the development and reception of their Citation Classic. Preliminary content analyses suggest that scientists emphasize social aspects of their work and see their work as a stepping stone between previous and subsequent research. The work proposed here includes coding and calibrating data to make it amenable for Qualitative Comparative Analysis (a method developed by Co-PI Ragin) and extending this tool to make it amenable to situations in which there may be different paths to a common outcome. The researchers will use this methodological innovation to produce typologies that identify key components of scientific influence and demonstrate how they work in conjunction -- a critical goal for a theoretically integrative approach. This new application of QCA, will allow the PIs to discern the multiple recipes (indeed, not just multiple ingredients) for scientific influence, and assess how they vary across time, discipline, collaborative status, and citation trajectory. This project will have broad impact by developing a freely available analytic tool and computer software program. The project will also have broad impact by assessing the factors relevant to producing influential science. Understanding the conditions that foster scholarly influence should help researchers understand how to produce research with greater impact and aid the development of effective science policy. Understanding how influence is attained differently in recent years, for more gender-integrated disciplines, and for collaborative projects (where women scientists show greater involvement) may also help us understand and thereby reduce gender inequity in science.