Does collaborative research have greater epistemic authority?

Qualitative philosophical, sociological, and historical arguments in favor of collaborative research having greater epistemic authority than research performed by individual scientists alone are presented and data from a preliminary longitudinal study of 33 researchers supports the predicted effects.

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents qualitative philosophical, sociological, and historical arguments in favor of collaborative research having greater epistemic authority than research performed by individual scientists alone. Quantitatively, epistemic authority is predicted to correlate with citations, both in number, probability of citation, and length of citation history. Data from a preliminary longitudinal study of 33 researchers supports the predicted effects, and, despite the fallacy of asserting the consequent, is taken to confirm the hypothesis that collaborative research does in fact have greater epistemic authority.