Policy and the mapping of scientific change: A co-word analysis of research into environmental acidification

This paper describes recent developments in the co-word method and illustrates, for the case of acid rain research, the way in which the method can be used to detect (a) the themes of research to be found in a given area of science, (b) the relationships between those themes, (c) the extent to which they are central to the area in question and (d) the degree to which they are internally structured. It is also suggested that the method may be used to draw comparative research profiles for different countries. Though the data used are only preliminiary, it is argued that the method has now been developed to the point where its results are both quite robust and easily assimilable. It is, accordingly, now an appropriate tool for policy analysis.