Collaboration in the sciences and the humanities

Abstract

In the past, humanists and scientists have held very different views about the role of collaboration in scholarly research. From the point of view of a Principal Investigator in a scientific laboratory, this article examines the increasingly dominant role of collaboration in scientific research. In contrast to the ‘consensus research’ model of the sciences, humanists have often viewed the role of collaboration in research with considerable skepticism and have placed greater value on the traditional model of the solitary scholar pursuing knowledge and truth. An examination of some of the distinctive cultural differences between the humanities and sciences suggests that the benefits of collaboration may come to play an increasingly significant role in the future of humanistic research.