Mertonian norms

In 1942, Robert K. Merton introduced "four sets of institutional imperatives taken to comprise the ethos of modern science... universalism, communism, disinterestedness, and organized skepticism." The subsequent portion of his book, The Sociology of Science, elaborated on these principles at "the heart of the Mertonian paradigm—the powerful juxtaposition of the normative structure of science with its institutionally distinctive reward system".

Merton defines this 'ethos' with reference to Albert Bayet's 1931 work « La Morale De La Science », which "abandons description and analysis for homily" as "that affectively toned complex of values and norms which is held to be binding on the man of science". He attempted to clarify it, given that previously it had not been 'codified'; Merton uses Bayet's remark that 'this scientific ethos [morale] does not have its theoreticians, but it has its artisans. It does not express its ideals, but serves them: it is implicated in the very existence of science'.

The norms are expressed in the form of prescriptions, proscriptions, preferences, and permissions. They are legitimatized in terms of institutional values. These imperatives , transmitted by precept and example and reenforced by sanctions are in varying degrees internalized by the scientist, thus fashioning his scientific conscience or, if one prefers the latter-day phrase, his super-ego... [This scientific ethos] can be inferred from the moral consensus of scientists as expressed in use and wont, in countless writings on the scientific spirit and in moral indignation directed toward contraventions of the ethos.

An examination of the ethos of modern science is only a limited introduction to a larger problem: the comparative study of the institutional structure of science. Although detailed monographs assembling the needed comparative materials are few and scattered, they provide some basis for the provisional assumption that “science is afforded opportunity for development in a democratic order which is integrated with the ethos of science.” This is not to say that the pursuit of science is confined to democracies.

His attempt at 'codification' sought to determine which social structure[s] "provide an institutional context for the fullest measure of [scientific] development", i.e. lead to scientific achievement rather than only "potentialities". He saw these "institutional imperatives (mores)" as being derived from the [institutional] "goal of science" ("the extension of certified knowledge") and "technical methods employed [to] provide the relevant definition of knowledge: empirically confirmed and logically consistent statements of regularities (which are, in effect, predictions)".

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