Lattice-based dynamic and overlapping taxonomies: The case of epistemic communities

Camille Roth and Paul Bourgine
Additional contact information
Camille Roth: CREA (Center for Research in Applied Epistemology), CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique
Paul Bourgine: CREA (Center for Research in Applied Epistemology), CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique

Scientometrics, 2006, vol. 69, issue 2, No 13, 429-447

Abstract: Summary We present a method for describing taxonomy evolution. We focus on the structure of epistemic communities (ECs), or groups of agents sharing common knowledge concerns. Introducing a formal framework based on Galois lattices, we categorize ECs in an automated and hierarchically structured way and propose criteria for selecting the most relevant epistemic communities - for instance, ECs gathering a certain proportion of agents and thus prototypical of major fields. This process produces a manageable, insightful taxonomy of the community. Then, the longitudinal study of these static pictures makes possible an historical description. In particular, we capture stylized facts such as field progress, decline, specialization, interaction (merging or splitting), and paradigm emergence. The detection of such patterns in epistemic networks could fruitfully be applied to other contexts.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-006-0161-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:69:y:2006:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-006-0161-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-006-0161-6

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().