Not super clear how to accumulate 'science'...

[SanderB]

I draw the following conclusions from my own experience.

Returning the same science reports gives diminishing returns. If you take a soil sample and return the kerbin who took it, you get 3/4 of the total science value you can get from that particular kind of science report (such as an eva report from KSP launchpad). After that you get 3/4 of 1/4, and after that 3/4 of 1/16 and so on and so on. On the upside this means that transmitting does not reduce the total amount of science you can get from a specific kind of science report. So if for example you keep on transmitting soil samples from the north pole, you will eventually get about 4/3 of the science value (through transmitting it about a 16 times) of the original science report as pure and neatly precipiated science points for your scientific machine.