Importance of Team work in Research

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Published on: June 25, 2007

Given the centrality of work teams, it is more than a bit remarkable how much our society’s perspective is focused on the individual. We school our children as individuals. We hire, train and reward employees as individuals. Yet we have great faith that individuals thrown into a team that has been put together with little thought devoted to its composition, training, development and leadership will be effective and successful. Science strongly suggests otherwise.

More of this from the Scientific American Article from June 2007 issue

Values a researcher or a scientist strive for

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Published on: June 25, 2007

Normative principles of science: A principle is normative if people publicly endorse it and there is a system of rewards and punishments for enforcing it .

As described in David Resnik in his book, Price of Truth

These principles are guidelines rather than absolute rules.
These are the principles that a scientist should value and strive for.

Eithcal Principles/normls/guidelines
Honesty: Be honest in all scientific communications. Do not fabricate, falsify or misrepresent data or results, do not plagiarize.

Carefulness: Avoid careless erros, sloppiness and negligence. carefully and critically scrutinize your own work. Keep good records of all your research activities. Use research methods and analytical tools appropriate to the topic under investigation.

Objectivity: Eliminate personal, social, economical and political biases from experimental design, testing, data analysis and interpretation, peer review and publication. Seek to develop unbiased data, methods and results.

Openness: Share ideas, data, theories, tools, methods, and results. Be open to criticism, advise and new ideas.

Freedom: Do not interfere with scientists liberty to pursue new avenues of research or challenge existing ideas, theories and assumptions. Support freedom of thought and discussion in the research environment.

Credit: Give credit where credit is due.

Respect for Intellectual property: Honor patents, copyrights, collaboration agreements, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use ubpublished data, results, or ideas without permission.

Respect for colleagues and students: Treat your colleagues and students fairly. Respect their rights and dignity. Do not discriminate against colleagues or students or exploit them

Respect for research subjects: Treat human and animal subjects with respect. Protect and promote human welfare and do not violate the dignity or rights of human subjects.

Competence: Maintain and enhance your competence and expertise through lifelong education. Promote competence in your profession and report incompetence.

Confidentiality: Protect confidential communications in reserach.

Legality: Obey relevant laws and regulations

Social responsibility: Stive to benefit society and to prevent or avoid harm to society through research, public education, civic engagement, and advocacy.

Stewardship of resources: Make fair and effective use of scientific resources. Do not destroy, abuse, or waste scientifc resources.

Epistemological principles/norms/guidelines
Testability: Propose theories and hypothesis that are testable

Consistency: Propose theories and hypothesis that are internally consistent

Coherence (conservation): propose and accept theories or hypothesis that are consistent with other well-established sci theories, laws or facts.

Empirical support: Propose and accept theories or hypothesis that are supported by evidence (data)

Precision: Propose theories and hypothesis that are precise and well defined

Parsimony: Propose and accept theories or hypothesis that are simple, economical or elegant.

Generality: Propose, infer and accept theories and hypothesis that are general in scope.

Novelty: Propose, infer and accept new theories and hypothesis; use new methods and techniques

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