Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 ‘Academic’ science
- 2 Research
- 3 Validity
- 4 Communication
- 5 Authority
- 6 Rules and norms
- 7 Change
- 8 The sociology of scientific knowledge
- 9 Science and technology
- 10 Pure and applied science
- 11 Collectivized science
- 12 R & D organizations
- 13 The economics of research
- 14 Science and the State
- 15 The scientist in society
- 16 Science as a cultural resource
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 ‘Academic’ science
- 2 Research
- 3 Validity
- 4 Communication
- 5 Authority
- 6 Rules and norms
- 7 Change
- 8 The sociology of scientific knowledge
- 9 Science and technology
- 10 Pure and applied science
- 11 Collectivized science
- 12 R & D organizations
- 13 The economics of research
- 14 Science and the State
- 15 The scientist in society
- 16 Science as a cultural resource
- Index
Summary
‘However certain the facts of any science may be, and however just the ideas we may have formed of these facts, we can only convey false impressions to others, while we want words by which these may be properly expressed’.
Antoine LavoisierThe archival literature of science
The basic principle of academic science is that the results of research must be made public (§1.5). Whatever scientists think or say individually, their discoveries cannot be regarded as belonging to scientific knowledge until they have been reported to the world and put on permanent record. The fundamental social institution of science is thus its system of communication.
How can one get to know what is known to science? In its most primitive form, scientific knowledge is to be found in the primary literature of science. This is a vast collection of ‘articles’, ‘papers’, ‘research reports’ and similar documents usually in a very conventional style and format that dates back to the origins of modern science in the late seventeenth century. A primary scientific communication is an original contribution to knowledge, by a named author or authors, normally published as a paper or article, of limited length (up to 50 pages, say) in a periodical, or journal devoted to a specific scientific subject.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Introduction to Science StudiesThe Philosophical and Social Aspects of Science and Technology, pp. 58 - 69Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1984