TY - JOUR

T1 - Concepts of Originality in the Natural Science, Medical, and Engineering Disciplines

T2 - An Analysis of Research Proposals

AU - Barlösius, Eva

N1 - Funding information: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

PY - 2019/11

Y1 - 2019/11

N2 - Science is fundamentally devoted to generating original knowledge, and therefore concepts of scientific originality are keys to understanding its very essence. Scientific originality has long been thought of as discovery, but new studies of the humanities and social sciences have shown that other, discipline-specific concepts of originality are used in these fields of study. Does this finding also hold for disciplines in the natural science, medicine, and engineering? Are concepts of originality scientifically grounded or do they instead reflect extrascientific modes of originality? These questions lie at the heart of research proposals responding to an initiative explicitly calling for original scientific projects. The proposals undergo a two-step analysis based on grounded theory[Per style, reference citation is not allowed in abstract section. Hence, we have deleted Charmaz, 2006. Please approve.]. First, three empirically identified modes of scientific originality are described: temporal, partially different, and revolutionary. The three modes of originality are consistent with extrascientific ones such as those in art and fashion. Second, six disciplines—two each in the natural science, medical, and engineering—are analyzed for ways the three modes of originality are used and for their associated disciplinary characteristics in order to identify discipline-specific concepts of originality.

AB - Science is fundamentally devoted to generating original knowledge, and therefore concepts of scientific originality are keys to understanding its very essence. Scientific originality has long been thought of as discovery, but new studies of the humanities and social sciences have shown that other, discipline-specific concepts of originality are used in these fields of study. Does this finding also hold for disciplines in the natural science, medicine, and engineering? Are concepts of originality scientifically grounded or do they instead reflect extrascientific modes of originality? These questions lie at the heart of research proposals responding to an initiative explicitly calling for original scientific projects. The proposals undergo a two-step analysis based on grounded theory[Per style, reference citation is not allowed in abstract section. Hence, we have deleted Charmaz, 2006. Please approve.]. First, three empirically identified modes of scientific originality are described: temporal, partially different, and revolutionary. The three modes of originality are consistent with extrascientific ones such as those in art and fashion. Second, six disciplines—two each in the natural science, medical, and engineering—are analyzed for ways the three modes of originality are used and for their associated disciplinary characteristics in order to identify discipline-specific concepts of originality.

KW - academic disciplines and traditions

KW - accounting practices

KW - epistemology

KW - originality

KW - representation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058996591&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0162243918808370

DO - 10.1177/0162243918808370

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85058996591

VL - 44

SP - 915

EP - 937

JO - Science Technology and Human Values

JF - Science Technology and Human Values

SN - 0162-2439

IS - 6

ER -