Relations Between Work Habits, Research Technologies, and Eminence in Science

Abstract

This paper examines relations between the work habits of academic scientists and measures of scholarly eminence and productivity. Data for 549 facult' members in three disciplines in U. S. universities are examined in order to test previous arguments on the topic. Results are presented which are consistent with the hypothesis that associations between work habits and scholarly output vary with the level of predictability or routine in research work. To the extent that this level is a consequence of the underlying pattern of social integration in a scientificfield, these results imply that an understanding of scientific creativity andproductivity presupposes an understanding of patterns of social integration in science.