Over the past 400 years or so, a set of mostly unwritten guidelines has evolved for how science should be properly done. The assumption in the research community is that science advances most effectively when scientists conduct themselves in certain ways.
The first person to write down these attitudes and behaviors was Robert Merton, in 1942. The founder of the sociology of science laid out what he called the “ethos of science,” a set of “values and norms which is held to be binding on the man of science.” (Yes, it’s sexist wording. Yes, it was the 1940s.) These now are referred to as scientific norms.
