 Scientific elitism and the information system of scienceDaniel James Amick Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1973, vol. 24, issue 5, 317-327 Abstract: Scientific elitism must be viewed as a multidimensional phenomenon. Ten variables of elitism are considered and a principal components factor analysis is used to scale this multivariate domain. Two significant dimensions of elitism were found; one in basic and one in applied science. Sociometric techniques were used to identify the elite of a scientific discipline in a large metropolitan area. An abstract analytical continuum, the scientific mission, was generated using a Thurstone‐type scale. The scientific mission is a higher order concept and subsumes both idealized polar types of basic and applied science. A scientist's scale score reflects his professional interests and the breadth of his interest space. There is a distinct tendency for elites to cluster at the basic research end of the continuum. It was found that: (a) the ten variables of elitism provide a scale that successfully discriminates between elites and non‐elites; (b) elites process more information than non‐elites; (c) elites had more narrowly defined, less diffuse interest spaces than non‐elites; and (d) elites prefer literature‐oriented methods of procuring scientific information as opposed to person‐oriented methods. Date: 1973 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamest:v:24:y:1973:i:5:p:317-327 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science from Association for Information Science & Technology |
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