STHC-L: The Science, Technology and Health Care Archives Forum

New AIP report shows that documenting large-scale science is different

• Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 10:01:05 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time)
• To: sthc-l@library.ucla.edu
• From: Joe Anderson <anderso@aip.org>
• Subject: New AIP report shows that documenting large-scale science is different
• Message-ID: SIMEON.10108231005.G@pow-s-spc102.library.ucla.edu

Forwarded to STHC-L for Joe Anderson, AIP Center for History of 
Physics.  --RJ

Joe may be reached at:  janderso@aip.org


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Archivists responsible for preserving the record of scientific research 
must take into account dramatic changes in its organizational 
structures.  The multi-institutional collaboration has become the 
organizational structure of choice in a number of fields of science and 
engineering (it can also be found in nonscientific areas of our society 
at large).  Instead of evaluating the contributions of a scientist as 
an individual researcher, or the records of a research project 
conducted by one institution, archivists are confronted with the 
records of collaborations that may continue for a decade before 
disbanding and involve multiple institutions, disciplines and even 
nations. This does not necessarily mean more work for archivists and 
others responsible for records. But it does mean they need to 
understand how the new organizational structures affect the creation 
and use of records.

To help find solutions, the Center for History of Physics of the 
American Institute of Physics has issued Documenting 
Multi-Institutional Collaborations, the final report of its decade-long 
study of multi-institutional collaborations in physics and allied 
fields.  The main goal of the project was to learn enough about these 
transient mini-institutions to be able to advise how to document them. 
The study was built on interviews with over 600 scientific 
collaborators; numerous site visits to archives, records offices, and 
federal agencies; and advice from working groups of distinguished 
scientists, archivists, records officers, historians and sociologists.  
The study group gathered and analyzed data on characteristics of 
collaborations such as their formation, decision-making structures, 
communication patterns, activities and funding.

The final report consists of three parts: Findings 
(Historical-Sociological and Archival) of Fields Studies by AIP, 
Appraisal of Records Created, and Current Archival Practices and 
Project Recommendations.  Archivists and records officers may fine most 
valuable the fact that we provide three approaches to appraisal: a 
typology of collaborations, a functional analysis of records creation, 
and the more standard appraisal guidelines.  The section on archival 
practices assesses the capability of saving adequate documentation of 
collaborations in academic archives, federal agencies, and corporate 
archives.  Project recommendations are addressed to research centers, 
to federal funding agencies, and to the National Archives.  The several 
appendices include a bibliography of selected readings. .

The full final report, Documenting Multi-Institutional Collaborations, 
is accompanied by Highlights and Project Recommendations, which 
provides excerpts from the full report and a set of recommendations.  
Both reports are available upon request from the AIP History Center, 
One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3843; phone: 301 209-3165, 
fax: 301 209-0882; e-mail: chp@aip.org.  These and other project 
reports will also be found on our Web site at 
http://www.aip.org/history/pubslst.htm#collabs.

The long-term study was funded by the AIP, the Andrew W. Mellon 
Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Historical 
Publications and Records Commission, and the Department of Energy

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