The Social Organization of Collaboration in the Chemical Sciences

化学科学合作社会组织

• 批准号: 1064121
• 负责人: Laurel Smith-Doerr
• 金额: $ 42.13万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-15 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1064121&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Social; Organization; Collaboration; Chemical; Sciences

Science is an increasingly collaborative venture. To understand important issues in science policy, one must thus understand scientific collaboration. Two pressing, current issues in science policy involve women's participation in science and ethical issues in science. This project investigates collaboration in the chemical sciences in order to develop deeper knowledge about both women in science and how scientists think broadly about ethical issues and responsibilities in their field. The United States' continuing competitiveness in developing innovative science and engineering demands both broader participation in those fields and continuing high standards of research. Despite over thirty years of research on women in science (mostly in purely academic settings) and significant investments, the persistence of gender gaps in science remains without an adequate explanation. Investigation of the chemical sciences allows this project to look at the determinants of success in research collaborations, both in academic and industrial settings. Although policies and programs for recruiting women to science make assumptions about why women are drawn to science (e.g., for altruistic reasons like helping others), very little research to date has investigated the social processes and organizational contexts by which gender can be related to broad ethical approaches to science. This project employs rigorous qualitative methods -- a combination of intensive interviews with women and men chemical scientists and ethnographic observation of their research collaboration meetings -- to build new, empirically-grounded theory. The observation methods in this project allow for investigation of (1) how different approaches to collaboration among men and women chemists are employed on a daily basis and (2) which kinds of laboratory organization are most conducive to innovative collaboration. Interviews with chemical scientists provide data on how scientists think about responsibilities of scientists in their field, including perceived responsibilities in research collaboration. The sustained three-year observation allows for following the arc of collaborative research relationships over time. Given that collaboration is a key mechanism in the process of knowledge production in chemical sciences, investigating what it looks like on the ground (i.e., what scientists view as worth pursuing and how they manage collaboration) is vital to understanding the productivity of science investments.Broader impactsThe contributions of this project to the science of science policy and innovation are expected to include building basic social-science knowledge about collaboration, with a particular emphasis on the respective involvements of women and men in research collaboration and how scientists think about their collaborative responsibilities. This project provides new data and derived insights on how to address collaboration and career issues for women in science, which will be crucial for future decision-makers who seek a grounded basis for policies that create greater equity. The focus on integrating equity and ethical climates provides insights into how responsible conduct of research training improves both payoffs from investments and the scientific work environment. This project also integrates research and teaching; graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher working with the principal investigators will have opportunities to learn to be effective collaborators in the social sciences while they are studying the theory of effective collaboration and observing and analyzing the outcomes of research collaboration in the chemical sciences.

科学是一项日益合作的事业。 要理解科学政策中的重要问题，就必须理解科学合作。 目前科学政策中的两个紧迫问题涉及妇女参与科学和科学中的伦理问题。 该项目调查了化学科学领域的合作，以便更深入地了解科学界的妇女以及科学家如何广泛地思考其领域的伦理问题和责任。 美国在发展创新科学和工程方面的持续竞争力要求更广泛地参与这些领域，并继续保持高标准的研究。 尽管对科学领域的女性进行了30多年的研究（主要是在纯学术环境中）和大量投资，但科学领域的性别差距仍然没有得到充分的解释。 对化学科学的调查使本项目能够研究学术和工业环境中研究合作成功的决定因素。 尽管招募女性从事科学的政策和计划对女性为什么被科学吸引做出了假设（例如，出于利他主义的原因，如帮助他人），迄今为止，很少有研究调查社会进程和组织背景，通过这些进程和组织背景，性别可以与广泛的科学伦理方法联系起来。 该项目采用了严格的定性方法-与女性和男性化学科学家的密集访谈以及对他们的研究合作会议的人种学观察相结合-以建立新的，基于理论的理论。 在这个项目中的观察方法允许调查（1）如何不同的方法，男性和女性化学家之间的合作，每天的基础上，（2）哪种实验室组织是最有利于创新的合作。 对化学科学家的采访提供了科学家如何看待科学家在其领域的责任的数据，包括在研究合作中的责任。 持续三年的观察允许随着时间的推移遵循合作研究关系的弧线。 鉴于合作是化学科学知识生产过程中的一个关键机制，调查它在实地的情况（即，科学家认为值得追求的东西以及他们如何管理合作）对于理解科学投资的生产力至关重要。更广泛的影响该项目对科学政策和创新科学的贡献预计将包括建立关于合作的基本社会科学知识，特别强调男女各自参与研究合作以及科学家如何看待他们的合作责任 该项目提供了关于如何解决科学界女性的合作和职业问题的新数据和见解，这对于未来寻求为创造更大公平的政策奠定基础的决策者至关重要。 对整合公平和道德气候的关注为研究培训的负责任行为如何改善投资回报和科学工作环境提供了见解。 该项目还整合了研究和教学;研究生和博士后研究员与主要研究人员一起工作，将有机会学习成为社会科学的有效合作者，同时学习有效合作的理论，观察和分析化学科学研究合作的成果。