Re: Paleontology becoming more collaborative?

[Michael Barton <darwinsbulldog@gmail.com>]

This may be of interest:

The Epistemic Significance of Collaborative Research
K. Brad Wray
Philosophy of Science, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Mar., 2002), pp. 150-168

Abstract:
I examine the epistemic import of collaborative research in science. I
develop and defend a functional explanation for its growing
importance. Collaborative research is becoming more popular in the
natural sciences, and to a lesser degree in the social sciences,
because contemporary research in these fields frequently requires
access to abundant resources, for which there is great competition.
Scientists involved in collaborative
research have been very successful in accessing these resources, which
has in turn enabled them to realize the epistemic goals of science
more effectively than other scientists, thus creating a research
environment in which collaboration is now the norm.


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Michael D. Barton
Butte, MT
Graduate Student, History (of Science)
Participant, John Tyndall Correspondence Project
Email: darwinsbulldog@gmail.com




On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Saint Abyssal <saint_abyssal@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I can't be the only one to have noticed that 2000s era scientific papers have 
> significantly more authors than previous papers, at least in paleontology. 
> Has anyone done any research that would corroborate the idea that science in 
> general or paleontology in particular has increasingly become a team effort 
> in recent times? If so, could you point me in the direction of a PDF (or at 
> least a reference)?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> ~Abyssal
>
>
>