Collaborative Research across Disciplinary and Organizational Boundaries

Scientific and engineering research increasingly involves multidisciplinary collaboration, sometimes across multiple organizations. Technological advances have made such cross-boundary projects possible, yet they can carry high coordination costs. This study investigated scientific collaboration acr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social studies of science 2005-10, Vol.35 (5), p.703-722
Main Authors: Cummings, Jonathon N., Kiesler, Sara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic conferences
Collaboration
Cooperation
Engineering
Funding
Geographic distribution
Geographic location
Graduate students
Innovation
Interdisciplinary Approach
Interdisciplinary research
Modeling
Multidisciplinary research
Organizations
Research projects
Research tools
Research universities
Science
Science and technology
Scientific Research
Sociology of science
Teamwork
Technological innovation
Universities
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Summary:Scientific and engineering research increasingly involves multidisciplinary collaboration, sometimes across multiple organizations. Technological advances have made such cross-boundary projects possible, yet they can carry high coordination costs. This study investigated scientific collaboration across disciplinary and university boundaries to understand the need for coordination in these collaborations and how different levels of coordination predicted success. We conducted a study of 62 scientific collaborations supported by a program of the US National Science Foundation in 1998 and 1999. Projects with principal investigators (PIs) in more disciplines reported as many positive outcomes as did projects involving fewer disciplines. By contrast, multi-university, rather than multidisciplinary, projects were problematic. Projects with PIs from more universities were significantly less well coordinated and reported fewer positive outcomes than projects with PIs from fewer universities. Coordination mechanisms that brought distant researchers together physically slightly reduced the negative impact of collaborations involving multiple universities. We discuss implications for theory, practice, and policy.
ISSN:0306-3127
1460-3659
DOI:10.1177/0306312705055535