Measuring cognitive distance between publication portfolios

Ronald Rousseau, Raf Guns, A.I.M. Jakaria Rahman and Tim C.E. Engels

Journal of Informetrics, 2017, vol. 11, issue 2, 583-594

Abstract: We study the problem of determining the cognitive distance between the publication portfolios of two units. In this article we provide a systematic overview of five different methods (a benchmark Euclidean distance approach, distance between barycenters in two and in three dimensions, distance between similarity-adapted publication vectors, and weighted cosine similarity) to determine cognitive distances using publication records. We present a theoretical comparison as well as a small empirical case study. Results of this case study are not conclusive, but we have, mainly on logical grounds, a small preference for the method based on similarity-adapted publication vectors.

Keywords: Cognitive distances; Barycenters; Similarity matrices; Similarity-adapted publication vectors; Weighted cosine similarity; Bootstrapping; Research expertise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:11:y:2017:i:2:p:583-594

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2017.03.001

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