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Research Scope

Research scope​

SCOPE studies science at several connected levels.

Scientific inputs​

Scientific research consumes resources, including:

  • researcher time and expertise;
  • public and private funding;
  • computing and experimental infrastructure;
  • datasets and research materials;
  • institutional and administrative capacity;
  • peer-review and editorial labor;
  • public attention and trust.

Academic processes​

SCOPE examines how those resources are transformed through:

  • problem selection;
  • experimentation and theory development;
  • collaboration and competition;
  • publication and peer review;
  • hiring, promotion, and tenure;
  • grant allocation;
  • replication and correction;
  • research evaluation;
  • institutional and national research policies.

Scientific outputs​

Research output extends beyond papers and citation counts. It can include:

  • new empirical knowledge;
  • theories and explanations;
  • measurements and datasets;
  • algorithms and methods;
  • software and hardware;
  • experimental infrastructure;
  • replications and negative results;
  • standards and engineering practices;
  • trained researchers and technical capacity.

Societal outcomes and impacts​

Scientific contributions may create value through:

  • technological development;
  • health and safety improvements;
  • environmental protection;
  • public policy and regulation;
  • education and workforce development;
  • economic activity;
  • public infrastructure;
  • cultural and intellectual understanding;
  • knowledge that becomes useful many years after its production.

SCOPE will not assume that every valuable contribution has immediate economic impact. Fundamental knowledge, research capacity, negative results, and long-term intellectual option value are also important scientific outcomes.

Example research questions​

SCOPE may investigate questions such as:

  • Is scientific publication output growing faster than the population of active researchers?
  • Has the marginal contribution of additional publications changed over time?
  • Is research becoming more conceptually diverse or more concentrated?
  • How much research effort is duplicated, fragmented, or never reused?
  • Which kinds of work receive attention, funding, replication, and institutional recognition?
  • Has peer-review capacity kept pace with submission growth?
  • How do reviewer workload and deadlines affect review quality?
  • How do academic evaluation metrics alter researcher behavior?
  • Which policies encourage reliable, reusable, and socially valuable research?
  • How is generative AI changing scientific writing, evaluation, participation, and responsibility?
  • Who benefits from AI-assisted research, and who may be disadvantaged?
  • How should contributions such as software, datasets, replications, infrastructure, and negative results be evaluated?
  • Through which pathways does research create public value?
  • How long does it take for different types of scientific contributions to produce observable societal outcomes?
  • Which academic reforms work, for whom, and under what conditions?