A Disputatious Community of Truth Seekers:

Knowers organized around a focal topic and dedicated to open, mutually reinforcing but critical commentary on the procedures and assumptions undergirding any knowledge claim.

[In Shadish, W., Cook, T., Leviton, L. (1991). Foundations of program evaluation: Theories of practice (D. T. Campbell: Methodologist of the experimenting society, p. 142)].