Invisible Coordination Work: Field Stations as Scientific Caregivers

Field stations are an important part of the global scientific research infrastructure providing access and logistical support that makes scientific contributions across domains from ecology to archeology possible. There are over 1000 field stations worldwide. However, little attention has been given to the cooperative work at field stations or how computer-supported cooperative work could benefit this cooperation. We conducted six ethnographic interviews from August 2022 through October 2022 with staff representing six field stations. The interviews made visible the articulation and coordination work needed for scientific caregiving that field stations do before, during, and after research teams do research at the site. This poster represents a portion of preliminary work in a larger study on cooperative work at field stations.