The Use of Concept Maps in Knowledge Organization: An Analysis of Conference Papers

Concept mapping is a technique for representing knowledge in graphic form. It is often used in academic conference papers by professionals in the field of knowledge organization. By examining the entire run of conference proceedings from ISKO and ASIS SIG/CR, looking specifically at the nationality and professional occupation of the authors who used concept maps in their papers, this study analyzes how concept maps have been implemented. A total of 652 papers and 327 concept maps were examined, from nine volumes of ISKO conference proceedings and thirteen volumes of ASIS SIG/CR conference proceedings. In addition, I applied Dahlberg’s classification in order to better understand the nature my findings. I found that Dahlberg’s “object” category covers the majority of titles and concept maps found in the proceedings. Future studies need to address how concept maps used by researchers can be organized to support retrieval. † This article is adapted from the author’s 2007 Ph.D. thesis: Concept map as “sign;” concept mapping in knowledge organization through a semiotics lens, Long Island University. * I owe a great deal of gratitude to Dr. Smiraglia, who introduced me to Dahlberg’s theories and the importance of classification in the context of concept maps.