Consensus and knowledge production in an academic field

Scholars have long been interested in the relationship between the amount of consensus in an academic field and the amount of scholarly production. In this paper, I describe previous theory and research that suggest four possible relationships between the amount of scholarly production and the degree of consensus. These relationships are tested with data on the content of 50 sub-debates in the field of bioethics from 1973 to 1995. I find support for the conclusion that increased consensus leads to increased scholarly production. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the humanities in general and bioethics in particular.