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Stephen M. Fiore, Ph.D.
Professor, Cognitive Sciences, Department of Philosophy
Director, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, Institute for Simulation & Training (http://csl.ist.ucf.edu/)
University of Central Florida
sfiore@ist.ucf.edu
D. Topic 4: Fundamental Dynamics of Scientific Discovery
POC: Enrique Parra, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, enrique.parra@us.af.mil
Scientific discovery is a highly unpredictable endeavor, in which research sponsors and indeed scientists themselves rarely foresee the nature and source of major advances. One source of uncertainty is that scientific discovery is the result of complex social processes that are poorly understood, including communication within and between groups, team processes, social networks, group identification, and formation of social norms. Moreover, although the scientific enterprise is a global endeavor, it is managed and operates differently across nation states. A greater understanding of the relationship of social processes and scientific discovery, particularly from a comparative perspective, would allow organizations to adopt policies and procedures that more reliably lead to transformative research, and guide the DoD in making informed, cost-effective, investments in the sciences. Moreover, there is a need for valid and reliable measures of the impact of scientific discovery on technology, policy, national security, and society. An understanding of the fundamental principles of scientific discovery could lead to metrics that are more meaningful than current impact factors or citation rates.
The scientific and technology (S&T) literature is growing exponentially, with the number of peer-reviewed publications doubling every 15 years and now reaching over 2 million annually. Despite this data deluge, the way we announce and exchange scientific advances remains largely unchanged since the invention of the research paper in 1665. Moreover, the digitization of the scientific literature and the advent of search engines have increased our speed of access without altering the way we process scientific information. The worldwide creation of knowledge and innovation is of high interest to the DoD. Given the US' remarkable research portfolio of $140 billion, very little is spent to understand what is created, how the scientific enterprise works, how knowledge spreads, and what fuels discoveries. There is a growing need for new ways to process scholarly output and identify promising research. DoD requires a richer understanding of the fundamental drivers of science; i.e. how research communities conduct themselves and interact with others and how insights are generated, shared, and grow to become useful innovations. A deeper awareness of the precursors of successful science will enhance the way DoD drives innovation and creates societal value.
The objective of this Minerva interest area is to explore the fundamental social dynamics underpinning scientific discovery in the S&T research enterprise in order to develop validated techniques to identify promising research, recognize potential scientific breakthroughs and measure their significance. This topic seeks innovative, multidisciplinary research embracing quantitative, predictive big data approaches and involving collaborations among natural, computational and social scientists to explore the patterns of scientific production with rich mathematical and computational models.
Sample topics include:
• The social conditions that promote scientific discovery
• Development of frameworks to understand the process of scientific research and discovery
• Comparative cross-national frameworks that identify similarities and dissimilarities in the scientific enterprise
• Validated, quantitative models describing the temporal dynamics of scientific communities and disciplines
• Evolution of scientific careers and collaboration networks and their influence on the S&T enterprise from a global and cross-cultural perspective
• Quantifying critical features and fitness of scientific ideas beyond citations.
• Characterization and prediction of the dynamics of scholarly impact
• Identification of emerging research trends and research gaps
DoD policy makers will benefit from a better science of Scientific Discovery by increased understanding of the challenges, opportunities, and limitations of social science research processes. The result of such investment will engender more actionable social science research. This would improve the value of Minerva Research to DoD.