The Scientific Community [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION ANDMETHODOLOGICAL NOTEThis work is concerned with the influence of scientific colleagues on the conduct of one another's research. With few exceptions, the discussion is limited to basic research in experimental sciences with well-established theories. In this type of research, the scientific community is relatively autonomous, and the group of colleagues is the most important source of social influence on research. Colleagues influence decisions to select problems and techniques, to publish results, and to accept theories.Decisions such as these involve the central goals and values of the scientific community. Other aspects of scientific life are discussed only with reference to them. I am not concerned here with such topics as the personalities of scientists, their nonscientific backgrounds, their politics, or the consequences of their work for nonscientists, except insofar as they affect purely scientific activities. Such topics as the religious beliefs of scientists or their political activities are interesting, but they are interesting primarily from the point of view of religion and politics.Scientists influence their colleagues in many ways, but I am concerned primarily with those influences on behavior that are normatively important to scientists. In other words, I am concerned with the operation of social control within the scientific community, with the problem of discovering the social influences that produce conformity to scientific norms and values.In the first chapter, a theory of social control in science is presented. At