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Summary
Recognition for accomplishment is a major institutional reward in the scientific community, thus regulating disputes over credit for discovery, can be viewed as an important problem in social control. Cozzens examines a well-known dispute -- one that took place with the discovery of the opiate receptor in neuropharmacological research.
The issues Cozzens discusses -- priority disputes, social control, and norms and morals -- are important throughout the sciences; they are crucial factors in the lives of scientists, the functioning of scientific communities, and the day-to-day operations of scientific organizations.
"The study produces significant advances in the understanding of the social structure and the norms of science. Science is a vital component of modern society, and it is therefore highly important that a wide public understand not only the outputs of science but the social processes related to the making of discoveries. It is not enough to communicate that scientists are 'human'(i.e., competitive or vulnerable or dishonest); it is necessary to appreciate the social system in which they operate. This book contributes such insight. Cozzens has excellent command of the literature on scientific discovery and takes imaginative advantage of her familiarity with the relatively new method of citation analysis." -- Elinor G. Barber, Institute of International Education
"This book will be standard reading for all sociologists who are keen on contemporary science studies." -- Dr. Augustine Brannigan, University of Calgary Susan E. Cozzens is Assistant Professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
