The Constitution of Science: Scientists' Public Discourse on the Purpose and Nature of Scientific Institutions and Practices

科学是一种由同行或作为科学代表的人进行结构化决策的活动。 这类活动受“宪法”管辖。 美国宪法是书面文件加上联邦党人文集等文本中的解释。 然而，就科学而言，宪法本身并不是正式成文的，而是以社论、致编辑的信件和其他类似的著作的形式出现的大量宪法评论，这些评论表明了科学家对科学行为规则的看法，违反这些规则的行为，以及改进或改变这些规则以适应新环境的方法。 该项目将编目和分析1000多篇社论，给编辑的信件，以及国家新闻界关于宪法问题的文章。 其核心目的是确定这些文件中提出的宪法问题，审查各种争端中的关键原则，并说明新出现的原则与现有原则相互作用的方式，以修改宪法。

Science is an activity in which structured decision-making by peers or by people acting as representatives of science play a large role. Such activities are governed by a `constitution.` The U.S. Constitution is the written document plus the interpretation given in such texts as the Federalist papers. In the case of science, however, the constitution itself is not formally written, but there is a rich body of constitutional commentary in the form of editorials, letters to the editor, and other such writings that indicate what scientists think about the rules governing the conduct of science, violations of such rules, and ways to improve them or change them to suit new circumstances. The project will catalog and analyze over a thousand editorials, letters to the editor, and articles in the national press that address constitutional matters. The central aim is to identify constitutional issues raised in such documents, examine the principles at stake in the various disputes and delineate the way emerging principles interact with existing principles to change the constitution.