A Community of Practice Framework for Interdisciplinary Collaborative Field Geoscience Research

Emerging research in convergence and the science of team science highlights the need for interdisciplinary, collaborative research that integrates ideas and approaches across fields to address society’s grand challenges, as well as the need for social science and humanities research that can clarify the conditions and mechanisms that support effective, productive, and innovative collaboration. In the geosciences, such collaborative work is especially necessary for understanding the processes that lead to geohazards, improving our ability to mitigate their impacts, responding to hazardous events, and training the next generation of scientists. A major component of this work involves collecting geoscience data in the field by teams of scientists from diverse disciplines and career stages and ensuring that knowledge about the data’s context and meaning is shared among those who produce and use it. This raises a critical question: What practices and skills can geoscience teams adopt to ensure equitable participation and build truly collaborative communities during field work? The Community of Practice (CoP) framework has long been recognized as an essential tool for promoting collaboration and discovery in field-based sciences, particularly in the geosciences, yet substantial barriers to participation, collaboration, and the retention of diverse talent persist. In this study, we use qualitative data including pre- and post-reflections, observations, interviews, and focus groups from 19 interdisciplinary, international subduction-zone geoscientists (e.g., volcanologists, geochemists), representing both novices (e.g., undergraduates and interns) and experts (e.g., PIs), who engaged in year-long field activities, to explore how a CoP develops and operates among field scientists. Findings show that early activities that establish shared purpose, trust, and norms, along with structured activities that introduce new members to CoP practices and values, promote the development of a CoP. Additionally, activities that strengthen the CoP’s functioning and evolution such as common practices, coordinated tasks, social infrastructure, and alignment of community norms and structures across the novice-to-expert spectrum, support equitable participation, improved scientific collaboration, and lasting impacts across career stages and demographics. These processes are shaped by how members perceive their roles, contributions, and value (formation of self), as well as by their ability to align with and navigate community norms and structures, negotiate boundaries, and adapt their behavior in response to the CoP’s evolving goals and values. Together, we examine the strengths and limitations of these constructs to develop a field-based CoP framework that helps geoscience teams use flexible, evidence-based practices for collaboration and learning within Communities of Practice.