On Inconsistencies at the “Nexus of Sciences” and the Need for Comprehensive Research

Scientific production is a complex object of management due to its specific character. All the stages of the scientific cycle have specific features – the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of scientific knowledge. The production of scientific knowledge is not replication or scaling of the same product, but generation of necessarily new knowledge, i.e. a single and unique product. The distribution of scientific knowledge in the field of fundamental studies consists not in limiting access to knowledge, but in its wide dissemination (“visibility”, “citation”). The exchange of scientific knowledge does not imply its alienation from the author or the holder in favor of the recipient, since knowledge that the recipient acquires in the act of exchange remains with the former holder. The consumption of scientific knowledge does not imply its disappearance in the process of consumption; knowledge persists with an arbitrarily large number of acts of consumption. The organization of scientific production and the management of such a peculiar production, consistent to its nature, must inevitably differ from the organization of the production of material goods. This leads to many specific issues that need to be taken into account in the process of organizing scientific production.

nexus of sciences, integrated research, scientific knowledge, organization of science, management of science, interdisciplinarity