Science with and without e

Abstract

Though the final extent of the change is difficult to estimate, the perception of e-science as a transformation of the everyday professional lives of scientists (scholars, researchers) is common. Besides, there is only little knowledge about the everyday professional live of scientists. Therefore, it is difficult to measure the change, but that would facilitate an understanding. Furthermore, it is important to recognize performed tasks or relevant processes and how they are carried out in order to understand potentials and limitations of e-science. We analyzed everyday professional lives of scientists by a qualitative study with 19 researchers among various disciplines and identified attributes like role, collaboration, and internationalization leading to a usage of tools among the context of e-science. The presented research is developed in the theoretical foundation of Heinrich's Human-Task-Technology framework and enables herewith a guided further exploration of the topic.