Exploratory mapping of theoretical landscapes through word use in abstracts

Pablo Contreras Kallens () and Rick Dale
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Pablo Contreras Kallens: Cornell University
Rick Dale: University of California

Scientometrics, 2018, vol. 116, issue 3, No 13, 1674 pages

Abstract: Abstract We present a case study of how scientometric tools can reveal the structure of scientific theory in a discipline. Specifically, we analyze the patterns of word use in the discipline of cognitive science using latent semantic analysis, a well-known semantic model, in the abstracts of over a thousand academic papers relevant to these theories. Our results show that it is possible to link these theories with specific statistical distributions of words in the abstracts of papers that espouse these theories. We show that theories have different patterns of word use, and that the similarity relationships with each other are intuitive and informative. Moreover, we show that it is possible to predict fairly accurately the theory of a paper by constructing a model of the theories based on their distribution of word use. These results may open new avenues for the application of scientometric tools on theoretical divides.

Keywords: Latent semantic analysis; Cognitive science; Text analysis; Theoretical issues (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-018-2811-x

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