Rauch's framework for operating within a scientific community

Nursing researchers are part of both a professional practice community and also a community of scholars that extends beyond our clinical discipline and public health specialty. As members of a community of scholars we must rely on each other for candor and critical appraisal of our own scholarship and the overall state of the science. Indeed, the continuing practice of continual critical appraisal is the foundation of scientific knowledge and the means by which we build the evidence needed to reach practice goals and improve practice. Modern philosophies of discourse, however, can impinge on the spirits of candor and open criticism necessary to testing new ideas in scientific thinking (Rauch, 1993).