The Social Organization of 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。科学政策中的两个紧迫的当前问题涉及妇女参与科学和科学中的伦理问题。这个项目调查化学科学方面的合作，以便更深入地了解科学界的女性，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既需要更广泛地参与这些领域，也需要继续保持高标准的研究。尽管对科学界的女性进行了30多年的研究(主要是在纯学术环境中)，并进行了大量投资，但科学界持续存在的性别差距仍然没有得到充分的解释。通过对化学科学的调查，该项目可以研究学术和工业环境中研究合作成功的决定因素。尽管招募女性进入科学领域的政策和计划对女性为什么被吸引到科学领域做出了假设(例如，出于帮助他人等利他主义的原因)，但迄今为止，很少有研究调查社会过程和组织环境，通过这些社会过程和组织环境，性别可以与广泛的科学伦理方法相关联。这个项目使用了严格的定性方法--结合对女性和男性化学科学家的密集采访，以及对他们研究合作会议的人种学观察--来建立新的、以经验为基础的理论。该项目中的观察方法可以调查(1)男性和女性化学家每天如何采用不同的合作方法，以及(2)哪种类型的实验室组织最有利于创新合作。对化学科学家的采访提供了科学家如何看待他们所在领域的科学家的责任的数据，包括在研究合作中感受到的责任。持续三年的观察允许随着时间的推移跟踪合作研究关系的弧线。鉴于协作是化学科学知识生产过程中的关键机制，调查实地情况(即，科学家认为什么值得追求以及他们如何管理协作)对于理解科学投资的生产率至关重要。广泛影响该项目对科学政策和创新的贡献预计将包括建立关于协作的基本社会科学知识，特别强调女性和男性在研究协作中的各自参与，以及科学家如何思考他们的协作责任。该项目就如何解决女性在科学领域的合作和职业问题提供了新的数据和派生的见解，这将对未来的决策者至关重要，他们将为创造更大公平的政策寻求扎实的基础。对整合公平和道德氛围的关注提供了对负责任的研究培训如何改善投资回报和科学工作环境的洞察。该项目还将研究和教学结合在一起；研究生和一名博士后研究员与主要研究人员合作，将有机会在学习有效合作理论并观察和分析化学研究合作成果的同时，学习成为社会科学的有效合作者。

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.