[PHILOS-L] CFP: Scientific bubbles: definitions, context, and approaches (deadline 15 July 2026)

[Y J Erden]

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CFP: Scientific bubbles: definitions, context, and approaches
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Deadline: 15 July 2026

Website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/329039/scientific-bubbles-definitions-context-and-approaches

In this special issue we seek to investigate the relevance of ‘bubbles’ as a concept to account for and evaluate episodes and events in science. Economists and others have long been fascinated - and challenged by - bubble-like phenomena in markets, which on standard economic accounts appear irrational and in need of explanation. Technological development has often been analysed as bubble phenomena and, as a few scholars have previously noted, science itself can undergo similar episodes. As in economic cases, scientific fields may exhibit rapid increases in activity on a given topic, seeming to involve something like speculation, followed by relatively quick collapses in that activity. On the face of it, bubbles in science are a challenge, insofar as they seem to represent a failure in science and result in costs overall to society.

Cases which might be analysed in these terms include topics within nanoscience (e.g. nanomedicine), neuroscience (e.g. MRI, neurotechnologies), AI (e.g. medical diagnostics, expert systems), bioengineering (e.g. CRISPR), regenerative medicine (e.g. stem-cells), materials science (e.g., high-temperature superconductors), physics (e.g., cold fusion). There are potential historical cases, such as Bertillonage, S-matrix theory, or biophysics. Some bubbles also form across wide-ranging transdisciplinary formations, e.g., cybernetics, behavioralism, or nanotechnology.

We welcome contributions from a wide variety of fields which can help reflect on and evaluate the relevance of the bubble concept to science. Contributions can come from history, philosophy, and sociology of science (STS), scientometrics, economics, cognitive science, science policy, or any other field involved in the analysis of science and scientific behaviour.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• How to define, conceptualise, and identify bubbles in scientific contexts
  
• The causes of bubbles in science
  
• The potential costs (and benefits) of bubbles and the implications for scientific integrity
  
• Whether bubbles are intrinsic to science (and human behaviour more generally)
  
• Analogies between scientific bubbles and those in other contexts, such as economic ones
  
• The use of “bubble” for categorising and explaining particular scientific cases, and where it falls down
  
• Analysis of contexts/cases within which bubbles develop, expand, and implode
  
• Responses to bubbles: how might science policy respond to better information on bubbles in science
  
• What the relations are between bubbles and scientific misconduct.

You are invited to submit your manuscript at any time before the submission deadline, 15 July 2026. For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact Dr. Miles MacLeod via m.a.j....@utwente.nl 


--
Dr Y. J. Erden
Associate Professor in Philosophy
University of Twente
AISB Vice Chair

Philos-L "The Liverpool List" is run by the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Recent posts can also be read in a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/PhilosL/ Follow the list on Twitter @PhilosL. Follow the Department of Philosophy @LiverpoolPhilos To sign off the list send a blank message to philos-l-unsub...@liverpool.ac.uk.

[Y J Erden]

CAUTION: This email originated outside of the University. Do not click links unless you can verify the source of this email and know the content is safe. Check sender address, hover over URLs, and don't open suspicious email attachments.

 

CFP: Scientific bubbles: definitions, context, and approaches

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

Extended deadline: 30 September 2026

Website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/329039/scientific-bubbles-definitions-context-and-approaches

In this special issue we seek to investigate the relevance of ‘bubbles’ as a concept to account for and evaluate episodes and events in science. Economists and others have long been fascinated - and challenged by - bubble-like phenomena in markets, which on standard economic accounts appear irrational and in need of explanation. Technological development has often been analysed as bubble phenomena and, as a few scholars have previously noted, science itself can undergo similar episodes. As in economic cases, scientific fields may exhibit rapid increases in activity on a given topic, seeming to involve something like speculation, followed by relatively quick collapses in that activity. On the face of it, bubbles in science are a challenge, insofar as they seem to represent a failure in science and result in costs overall to society.

Cases which might be analysed in these terms include topics within nanoscience (e.g. nanomedicine), neuroscience (e.g. MRI, neurotechnologies), AI (e.g. medical diagnostics, expert systems), bioengineering (e.g. CRISPR), regenerative medicine (e.g. stem-cells), materials science (e.g., high-temperature superconductors), physics (e.g., cold fusion). There are potential historical cases, such as Bertillonage, S-matrix theory, or biophysics. Some bubbles also form across wide-ranging transdisciplinary formations, e.g., cybernetics, behavioralism, or nanotechnology.

We welcome contributions from a wide variety of fields which can help reflect on and evaluate the relevance of the bubble concept to science. Contributions can come from history, philosophy, and sociology of science (STS), scientometrics, economics, cognitive science, science policy, or any other field involved in the analysis of science and scientific behaviour.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• How to define, conceptualise, and identify bubbles in scientific contexts
  
• The causes of bubbles in science
  
• The potential costs (and benefits) of bubbles and the implications for scientific integrity
  
• Whether bubbles are intrinsic to science (and human behaviour more generally)
  
• Analogies between scientific bubbles and those in other contexts, such as economic ones
  
• The use of “bubble” for categorising and explaining particular scientific cases, and where it falls down
  
• Analysis of contexts/cases within which bubbles develop, expand, and implode
  
• Responses to bubbles: how might science policy respond to better information on bubbles in science
  
• What the relations are between bubbles and scientific misconduct.

You are invited to submit your manuscript at any time before the submission deadline, 30 September. For any inquiries about the appropriateness of contribution topics, please contact Dr. Miles MacLeod via m.a.j....@utwente.nl 

--

Dr Y. J. Erden

Associate Professor in Philosophy

University of Twente

AISB Vice Chair