9311121 Warnow "Big" science has now reached the point where no one institution can supply the financial resources, personnel or equipment to undertake a research project. 200 or more authors are not uncommon in publications resulting from these projects. The authors come together from many different institutions in order to form temporary collaborations of varying durations. How do they operate? How do they communicate? How do the senior leaders in the project exercise control over the more junior investigators? These and many other questions need to be answered if we are to understand how big science operates. Under the direction of Ms. Warnow, the AIP Center for History of Physics has completed two phases of a three phase study of multi- institutional collaborative research in different areas of physics. Under two prior grants, the AIP has intensively studied collaborations in high-energy physics, space science, and geophysics. Under this third grant, the AIP is modifying its approach to the study of collaborations in order to promote a comparative perspective and to develop policies and recommendations to improve documentation of such collaborations generally. Under Ms. Warnow's leadership, the AIP team is investigating ten fields of science and technology that have used multi-institutional collaborations from the mid-1970's to the present. These fields include not only physics but also biology, chemistry, and computer science. The staff are conducting a total of 90 interviews--enough to develop a profile of organizational structure, operational functions, and patterns of communication of collaborations in each field. Interview subjects include not only scientists but also administrators and technical support staff. They are using a single question set to solicit easily compared data from interviewees on the basis patterns they have seen. Three reports will result from this study: (1) A report on multi-institutional collaborations over recent d ecades to the present; (2) Guidelines for the appraisal of records created by multi-institutional collaborations; and (3) A summary and a set of final recommendations to serve the needs of archivists and policy makers in the scientific community. The oral history recordings and transcripts will be accessible in the AIP Center's Niels Bohr Library. ***
