Mapping of science by combined co‐citation and word analysis. II: Dynamical aspects

Robert R. Braam, Henk F. Moed and Anthony F. J. van Raan

Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 1991, vol. 42, issue 4, 252-266

Abstract: Combined analysis of co‐citation relations and words is explored to study time‐dependent (“dynamical”) aspects of scientific activities, as expressed in research publications. This approach, using words originating from publications citing documents in co‐citation clusters, offers an additional and complementary possibility to identify and link specialty literature through time, compared to the exclusive use of citations. Analysis of co‐citation relations is used to locate and link groups of publications that share a consensus concerning intellectual base literature. Analysis of word‐profile similarity is used to identify and link publication groups that belong to the same subject‐matter research specialty. Different types of “content‐words” are analyzed, including indexing terms, classification codes, and words from title and abstract of publications. The developed methods and techniques are illustrated using data of a specialty in atomic and molecular physics. For this specialty, it is shown that, over a period of 10 years, continuity in intellectual base was at a lower level than continuity in topics of current research. This finding indicates that a series of interesting new contributions are made in course of time, without vast alteration in general topics of research. However, within this framework, a more detailed analysis based on timeplots of individual cited key‐articles and of content‐words reveals a change from more rapid succession of new empirical studies to more retrospective, and theoretically oriented studies in later years. © 1991 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Date: 1991
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https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(199105)42:43.0.CO;2-G

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamest:v:42:y:1991:i:4:p:252-266

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