American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations.

A documentation research project to study the complex issues facing the historical documentation of multi-institutional collaborations in physics and allied sciences. The project aimed to identify patterns of collaboration, records creation, and use; define the documentation problems; field test possible solutions to these problems; and recommend future actions to secure adequate documentation and facilitate future study. Phase I focused on collaborative research in high-energy physics (completed 1992), Phase II addressed collaborative research in space science and geophysics (completed 1995), and Phase III focused on four disciplinary areas of ground-based astronomy, materials science, heavy-ion physics, and medical physics, and a category named computer-mediated collaborations. A final report focuses on comparisons of the various fields studied as well as broad questions of documentation policy and practice.