The Virtual College: Computer-Mediated Communication and Scientific Work

Abstract

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become an integral part of scientific work. Based on interviews with academic scientists in four fields, we discuss the impacts of CMC on the organization of scientific work. We find evidence that CMC may be leading to new collaboration patterns, more communication within collaborations, and peripherality effects. However, these effects are heavily mediated by the nature of access and the social context into which CMC has been introduced.