Issue Tree Ostiblog article of mine

[David E. Wojick]

Hi All,

I have a new article on the Ostiblog: "Sharing Results is the Engine of Scientific Progress." It features an issue tree model of science (placed at the end), called a Results Tree.

http://www.osti.gov/ostiblog/home/entry/sharing_results_is_the_engine

The issue tree is one of the fundamental structures in scientific thinking. I discovered it many years ago and have a lot of material on it if you are interested, including a textbook. I am considering developing some Results Trees to visualize specific research areas of interest to DOE. The issue tree provides a rich array of measurable features. A small new science in its way. Which questions are not being pursued? How are resources allocated among those that are? Where is the rapid growth, and where is it slowing? The dynamics are very organic.

A second structure of great importance is that of concepts, methods, and such jumping from tree to tree. The concept of the quantum, for example, jumped from heat to light to the atom. Jumping allows distant ideas to converge, while the issue tree maps the divergence of thinking. The combined network is very complex, but very logical. Citation and co-author networks are but a vague shadow of this underlying logic.

In any case it shows why what OSTI does, and scientific communication generally, OA, etc., is so important to science. Sharing is the engine of progress. Sharing is the life blood of science, not a secondary process.

Best regards,

David

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"David E. Wojick, Ph.D., PE" <WojickD at osti.gov>
Senior Consultant for Innovation
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
US Department of Energy
http://www.osti.gov/innovation/
391 Flickertail Lane, Star Tannery, VA 22654 USA

http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/resume.html provides my bio and past client list. 
http://www.bydesign.com/powervision/Mathematics_Philosophy_Science/ presents some of my own research on information structure and dynamics.