The Critical Importance of Careers in Collaborative Scientific Research

This paper examines why scientific productivity in the United States is often studied at the individual level and often in the context of a career despite evidence that discovery is a collaborative process. We argue that the focus stems in part from a research tradition in the US which places great emphasis on the analysis of individual-level data. It also results from the fact that in the United States in the academic sector, where the majority of research is produced, it is the responsibility of the individual investigator to secure the funding required to support research. The paper also examines major changes at work in the United States which threaten to undermine the way in which the research enterprise operates.