Beyond the storyline issues, there’s the matter of figuring out what to do when not receiving orders, or how to accomplish things (for example, the most appropiate time to gain a surrender. I think updating station manuals and instructing science officers in new protocols, in addition to research, would be better left to a team of experts than to the best judgement of command.
Also, if the R&D team alters the effectiveness of surrenders, the Scicomms corps looks like an ideal place to chech they’re not going overboard with the changes.