A scientometric approach to autism based on translation sociology

We advance the following hypothesis with respect to the construction of scientific knowledge: a) a scientific article may be seen as bringing together differing knowledge networks within the same experimental context; b) the researcher attempts to prove the existence of objective links within this context. This process allows the researcher to link or associate his own subjective proposals to those that are verifiably objective relationships for all researchers. Researchers consolidate the relationships put forward by others accordingly. There is a statistic method which makes it possible to demonstrate these dynamics, i.e., co-word analysis. This method, applied to articles on autism, has provided results that support this hypothesis. The methods brought to bear by the majority of researchers follow these general dynamics.

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