The Normative Structure of Science

Merton's 1942 essay codifies the norms that he argued had made science work: communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, organised scepticism — the CUDOS norms that became the founding text of the sociology of science. The argument is not that scientists are saintly but that the institution generates reliable knowledge when its participants hold each other accountable to these norms. For product direction the transfer is direct: any organisation that claims to "learn from data" is operating under an analogous set of norms, usually unstated, and most organisational failures on data culture are failures of disinterestedness and organised scepticism rather than of tooling. Short, densely argued, and a useful lens. Read alongside Flier for a contemporary account of what happens when the norms break down.