280 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1316 



whether the project itself is really fitted for 

 cooperation. It is clear that men who are 

 busy with other matters will not generally be 

 able to perform this sort of preliminary serv- 

 ice unless adequate funds for assistance and 

 travel are available. 



In (the preceding paragraphs the need and 

 the apparent possibility for cooperation in 

 productive fundamental research has been em- 

 phasized, but it is not to be forgotten that there 

 are other lines of cooperative endeavor to 

 which the attention of scientists might turn, 

 lines along which larger nurdbers of coopera- 

 tors might be willing to unite. Practical re- 

 search, for example, wthich always holds forth 

 hopes of financial return, is more generally at- 

 tractive than fundamental research. Applied 

 science readily finds financial support, either 

 from individuals or from commercial organiza- 

 tions, while fundajmental science is not so 

 generally and practically appreciated. Another 

 field of cooperation in which large numbers 

 of scientists would surely cooperate is that in 

 which lies the problem of suitable publication 

 and dissemination of the results of research. 

 This field also commands considerable support, 

 partly on account of the fact that publications 

 frequently pay their way in the commercial 

 sense and partly because research institutions 

 of various kinds (especially governmental 

 ones) may hope to gain prestige through the 

 publication and distribution, of good scien- 

 tific contributions. Still another example may 

 be mentioned, in the field of bibliography, 

 with which the writer has dealt to some de- 

 gree in other places.^ A great cooperation of 

 this kind, involving hundreds of workers, has 

 recently been inaugurated in the new botan- 

 ical albstract journal. Finally, there are possi- 

 bilities for valuable cooperation in making the 

 facilities for experimental research available 

 to more workers than is now the case. Thus 

 a number of workers might unite to find the 

 needed buildings and apparatus for a research 

 laboratory in which any scientist might work; 



2 See Science, 49 : 199-207. 1919. The remark 

 in the text refers also to some unpublished memo- 

 randa presented to the Division of Biology and 

 Agriculture of the National Kesearoh Council. 



this has been done in several instances. 

 These and many other lines of cooperative en- 

 deavor that -might be mentioned are all surely 

 worthy of the best that we find in us, and it is 

 not the intention of the writer to maintain 

 tihat constructive, fundamental research is 

 more important than any other line. This 

 paper, however, is planned to deal especially 

 with cooperation in fundamental scientific re- 

 search itself, in the solving of the actual prc^b- 

 lems of science, and so other fields for coopera- 

 tion are not here dwelt ujwn. The following 

 paragraphs will set forth some of the appar- 

 ently possible ways by which tihe organization 

 of actual cooperative research might be at- 

 tempted under the auspices of the National 

 Research Council; there is no doubt that such 

 activity lies within the prerogative of the 

 council or of any of its divisions, should they 

 see fit to undertake it. 



POSSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS FOR COOPERATIVE 

 PROJECTS 



Since actual research deals with somewhat 

 definite and concrete things, it is clear that a 

 separate organization is required for each 

 project and that a project must be relatively 

 narrow in order to be suitable. A committee 

 on the general subject of cooperation in re- 

 search, without a specific problem, m;ight be 

 valuable in other ways — ^mainly edticational — 

 but it could not further research cooperation 

 unless it narrowed its purview. General com- 

 mittees might be formed (some are already in 

 existence) to canvass the various scientific 

 fields and prepare, from time to time, lists of 

 projects that seem promising for cooperation. 



Before it can be decided whether or not 

 a given project for research cooperation is 

 to be undertaken, that project must of course 

 be presented in a rather complete, though 

 preliminary, way. Scientists might be en- 

 couraged to present plans for projects. 

 These plans should show clearly what sort 

 of work is contemplated, how it may be 

 divided up among the cooperators, how the 

 results may be handled so as to bring them 

 into the permanent structure of fundamental 

 science, what funds will be required for 



