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'''Scientific community''' refers to the bearer of a [[Scientific Mosaic|scientific mosaic]]. At the moment, the term lacks a proper definition.
== Prehistory ==
== History ==
As soon as discussions about the laws of scientific change and the field of [[Scientonomy|scientonomy ]] began, scientonomists have consistently asked the questions of how to define and how to identify scientific communities. There have been many attempts by scientonomists to answer these questions, and two are of note: the ''Fraser-Walpole Model'' and the ''Supradium Model''. Though these models were proposed in the early history of our discipline – prior to the development of a system of proposed modifications to the theory of scientific change – they are worth discussing as early attempts at defining a scientific community as something other than the bearer of a mosaic. As it turns out, both the Fraser-Walpole and Supradium models are deficient because they emphasize neither the necessary nor sufficient characteristics of a community.
According to the Fraser-Walpole Model, by overlapping different features of scientific communities – the theory only identifies two features: discipline and location – we can figure out which parts of a mosaic certain communities share with others. For instance, we can look at the mosaic of the physics community across all locations, including physicists in France, Britain and other countries; we can look at the mosaic of the French community across all disciplines, including French physicists, chemists and other French scientists of a period; finally, we can look at the mosaic of the community of French physicists in particular, perhaps to compare and contrast with the community of British physicists at a given time.
== Current View ==
''Scientific community'' lacks a formal definition in scientonomy. It continues to be referred to as “the bearer of a scientific mosaic”. Yet the concept remains fundamental to the field. For, every time a scientonomist refers to a [[Theory|theory ]] that is [[Theory Acceptance|accepted ]] or a [[Method|method ]] that is [[Method Employment|employed]], they actually mean a theory accepted or a method employed ''by the scientific community''.
Several attempts to define scientific community are being pursued at present.
