For two centuries, collaborative research has become increasingly widespread. Various explanations of this trend have been proposed. Here, we offer a novel functional explanation of it. It differs from ac- counts like that of Wray (2002) by the precise socio-epistemic mech- anism that grounds the beneficialness of collaboration. Boyer-Kassem and Imbert (2015) show how minor differences in the step-efficiency of collaborative groups can make them much more successful in particular configurations. We investigate this model further, derive robust social patterns concerning the general successfulness of collaborative groups, and argue that these patterns can be used to defend a general functional account.

中文翻译：

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解释科学合作：一般功能账户

两个世纪以来，合作研究变得越来越普遍。已经提出了对这种趋势的各种解释。在这里，我们提供了一个新颖的功能解释。它与 Wray (2002) 等帐户的不同之处在于以合作的益处为基础的精确的社会认知机制。Boyer-Kassem 和 Imbert (2015) 展示了协作小组的步骤效率的微小差异如何使他们在特定配置中更加成功。我们进一步研究了这个模型，得出了关于协作小组的普遍成功的强大社会模式，并认为这些模式可以用来保护一个一般的功能账户。