Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:57:44.645Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Proof of Concept Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Steve Elliott
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Researchers often pursue proof of concept research, but criteria for evaluating such research remain poorly specified. This article proposes a general framework for proof of concept research that knits together and augments earlier discussions. The framework includes prototypes, proof of concept demonstrations, and post facto demonstrations. With a case from theoretical evolutionary genetics, the article illustrates the general framework and articulates some of the reasoning strategies used within that field. This article provides both specific tools with which to understand how researchers evaluate models in theoretical evolutionary genetics and general tools that apply to proof of concept research more generally.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 88 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 258 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Elliott, Kevin C. 2007. “Varieties of Exploratory Experimentation in Nanotoxicology.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 29:313–36.Google ScholarPubMed
Elliott, Kevin C. 2012. “Epistemic and Methodological Iteration in Scientific Research.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 43:376–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, Kevin C., Cheruvelil, Kendra S., Montgomery, Georgina M., and Soranno, Patricia A.. 2016. “Conceptions of Good Science in Our Data-Rich World.” BioScience 66:880–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gelfert, Axel. 2016. How to Do Science with Models: A Philosophical Primer. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelfert, Axel. 2018. “Models in Search of Targets: Exploratory Modelling and the Case of Turing Patterns.” In Philosophy of Science: Between the Natural Sciences, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities, ed. Christian, Alexander, Hommen, David, Retzlaff, Nina, and Schurz, Gerhard, 245–69. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Gould, A. Lawrence. 2005. “Timing of Futility Analyses for ‘Proof of Concept’ Trials.” Statistics in Medicine 24:1815–35.Google Scholar
Haufe, Chris. 2013. “Why Do Funding Agencies Favor Hypothesis Testing?” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science A 44:363–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. I. G. 1997. “Models and Representation.” Philosophy of Science 64:S325–S336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Norman A., and Porter, Adam H.. 2000. “Rapid Speciation via Parallel, Directional Selection on Regulatory Genetic Pathways.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 205:527–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Norman A., and Porter, Adam H.. 2001. “Toward a New Synthesis: Population Genetics and Evolutionary Developmental Biology.” Genetica 112–13:45–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Norman A., and Porter, Adam H.. 2007. “Evolution of Branched Regulatory Genetic Pathways: Directional Selection on Pleiotropic Loci Accelerates Developmental System Drift.” Genetica 129:57–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendig, Catherine Elizabeth. 2016. “What Is Proof of Concept Research and How Does It Generate Epistemic and Ethical Categories for Future Scientific Practice?” Science and Engineering Ethics 22:735–53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuorikoski, Jaakko, Lehtinen, Aki, and Marchionni, Caterina. 2010. “Economic Modelling as Robustness Analysis.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 61:541–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laubichler, Manfred D., Prohaska, Sonja J., and Stadler, Peter F.. 2018. “Toward a Mechanistic Explanation of Phenotypic Evolution: The Need for a Theory of Theory Integration.” Journal of Experimental Zoology B 330:5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonelli, Sabina. 2016. Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Sandra D. 2003. Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NSF (National Science Foundation). 2017. “Program Solicitation: Innovation Corps–National Innovation Network Teams Program (I-CorpsTM Teams).” NSF 18-515, National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/nsf18515/nsf18515.htm.Google Scholar
Okasha, Samir. 2016. “Population Genetics.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Zalta, Edward N.. Stanford, CA: Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2016/entries/population-genetics/.Google Scholar
O’Malley, Maureen A., Elliott, Kevin C., Haufe, Chris, and Burian, Richard M.. 2009. “Philosophies of Funding.” Cell 138:611–15.Google ScholarPubMed
Plutynski, Anya. 2001. “Modeling Evolution in Theory and Practice.” Philosophy of Science 68:S225–S236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plutynski, Anya. 2004. “Explanation in Classical Population Genetics.” Philosophy of Science 71:1201–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plutynski, Anya. 2005. “Explanatory Unification and the Early Synthesis.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 56:595–609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plutynski, Anya. 2006a. “Strategies of Model Building in Population Genetics.” Philosophy of Science 73:755–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Plutynski, Anya. 2006b. “What Was Fisher’s Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection and What Was It For?” Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 37:59–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, Adam H., and Johnson, Norman A.. 2002. “Speciation despite Gene Flow When Developmental Pathways Evolve.” Evolution 56:2103–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rao, Veena, and Nanjudiah, Vidyanand. 2011. “J. B. S. Haldane, Ernst Mayr and the Beanbag Genetics Dispute.” Journal of the History of Biology 44:233–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Bernd. 2006. “Proof of Principle Studies.” Epilepsy Research 68:48–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Servedio, Maria R., Brandvain, Yaniv, Dhole, Sumit, Fitzpatrick, Courtney L., Goldberg, Emma E., Stern, Caitlin A., Van Cleve, Jeremy, and Justin Yeh, D.. 2014. “Not Just a Theory: The Utility of Mathematical Models in Evolutionary Biology.” PLOS Biology 12 (12): e1002017.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tulchinsky, Alexander Y., Johnson, Norman A., Watt, Ward B., and Porter, Adam H.. 2014. “Hybrid Incompatibility Arises in a Sequence-Based Bioenergetic Model of Transcription Factor Binding.” Genetics 198:1155–66.Google Scholar
Weisberg, Michael. 2006. “Robustness Analysis.” Philosophy of Science 73:730–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wimsatt, William C. 2007. Re-engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winsberg, Eric. 2015. “Computer Simulations in Science.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Zalta, Edward N.. Stanford, CA: Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/simulations-science.Google Scholar
Woodward, Jim. 2006. “Some Varieties of Robustness.” Journal of Economic Methodology 13:219–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar