The Science and Practice of Team Science (2025)
Chapter: Appendix E: Glossary
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Appendix D: Sampling of Survey-Based Team Assessments
Appendix E
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. The Science and Practice of Team Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/29043.
Appendix E
Glossary
| accessibility | Highlights the importance of making environments, products, and services usable by people with disabilities. This ensures that all individuals, regardless of their abilities, can participate fully in society. |
| best practice | An activity or strategy that can enable a science team to collaborate effectively to achieve its goals. |
| competencies | The knowledge, skills, and abilities required for team success. |
| context-driven competencies | Competencies required for a specific team working on a specific scientific task. |
| cross-disciplinary | Collaboration among multiple disciplines toward a shared objective. |
| faultlines | Ways in which teams may split into sub-groups based on one or more attributes. |
| group escalation | The tendency of teams to commit poor decisions resulting from pressures for conformity. |
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. The Science and Practice of Team Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/29043.
| hyperauthorship | Refers to when scientific papers have hundreds to thousands of authors. |
| interdisciplinary | Blending or juxtaposing concepts and methods from various disciplines. |
| multidisciplinary | Each discipline makes separate contributions in an additive way. |
| multiteam systems | Interdependent sets of two or more component teams pursuing shared superordinate goals. |
| project management | The systematic and deliberate application of knowledge, tools, and expertise to ensure the successful completion of complex projects in a timely and efficient manner. |
| psychological safety | The belief that a group is safe to engage in interpersonal risk. |
| researcher | Any member of a science team conducting and disseminating scientific research. |
| task-contingent competencies | Competencies specific to a type of task but can be applied across different teams. |
| taskwork | The activities associated with achieving a team’s goals. |
| team charter | A document written by team members at the beginning of a team’s life cycle that defines acceptable team behaviors. |
| team-contingent competencies | Competencies specific to a particular team that can be applied generically across scientific tasks. |
| team orientation | Demonstrating collaborative attitudes and behaviors, rather than those that are more individualistic. |
| team science | Collaborative, interdependent research conducted by more than one individual. |
Suggested Citation:
"Appendix E: Glossary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2025. The Science and Practice of Team Science. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
doi: 10.17226/29043.
| team task analysis | A process to identify work behaviors and associated knowledge, skills, and abilities for successful job or task performance. |
| teamwork | The interactions among team members that are essential for effective collaboration. |
| transdisciplinary | Advancement and integration of discipline-specific theories, concepts, and methods. |
| transdisciplinary orientation | A characteristic that reflects the values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors for effective cross-disciplinary collaboration. |
| transportable competencies | Competencies that have the ability to be applied across a range of tasks and teams. |
| workshops | Organized, structured interventions designed to bring together individuals to engage in collaborative learning, skill development, and reflection over a few hours to a few days. |
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