Broadening our Understanding of Scientific Work for the Era of Team Science: Implications for Recognition and Rewards

This chapter addresses rewards and recognition in the scientific enterprises related to facilitating or hindering research done in teams. It makes the case for revising promotion and tenure policies, highlighting limitations of the current system to adequately reflect and recognize team science. It then highlights a range of related changes in the culture of the scientific enterprise that may serve to influence and promote changes in promotion and tenure policies. The chapter summarizes key points from white papers and reports that make the case for revising promotion and tenure policies and provides examples of specific recommendations and guidelines. The chapter then proposes a wide-ranging set of key scientific activities in team science that can be used to undergird revisions to promotion and tenure policies to comprehensively account for and assess the quality of one’s scientific contributions in team science. Such a framework shifts the focus of promotion and tenure review from scientific roles to scientific activities. This lens helps to dispel the sharp distinction drawn between investigators and specialized professional roles for team science, with implications for how scientists working in both types of roles are recognized and rewarded. It also has broad-reaching implications for how scientific activities specific to team science are reflected in budgets, academic structures, funding, and more.