The scientist-practitioner in context

A commentary on the Special Issue papers on the Scientist-Practitioner Model is presented. Based on the authors' recollections, a senior scholar uses a contextual approach to describe the historical and social sources of the evolution of the S-P model. It is recommended that the S-P perspective not be restricted to a philosophy of training nor a particular kind of scientific methodology, but include a historical and social understanding of the unfolding instantiations of the model.