Uncovering inter-specialty knowledge communication using author citation networks

Knowledge communication plays a fundamental role in studies of science of science. This paper aims to examine inter-specialty communication patterns within a discipline using author citation networks. Two metrics are designed, including average knowledge flow and average shortest distance. They are used to identify the impact and diffusion characteristics of inter-specialty knowledge communication. We apply these metrics to an empirical data set of Chinese library and information science (CLIS) publications. We find that the two metrics portray different aspects of knowledge communication in CLIS and conclude that indirect paths, the size of specialties, and the communication structure among specialties may lead to the differences.

[1]  Howard D. White,et al.  Pathfinder networks and author cocitation analysis: A remapping of paradigmatic information scientists , 2003, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[2]  Ismael Rafols,et al.  Diversity and network coherence as indicators of interdisciplinarity: case studies in bionanoscience , 2009, Scientometrics.

[3]  Ismael Rafols,et al.  Is science becoming more interdisciplinary? Measuring and mapping six research fields over time , 2009, Scientometrics.

[4]  Alan L. Porter,et al.  Measuring researcher interdisciplinarity , 2007, Scientometrics.

[5]  Ying Ding,et al.  A bird's-eye view of scientific trading: Dependency relations among fields of science , 2012, J. Informetrics.

[6]  Wenwu Yu,et al.  Second-Order Consensus for Multiagent Systems With Directed Topologies and Nonlinear Dynamics , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B (Cybernetics).

[7]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Can scientific journals be classified in terms of aggregated journal-journal citation relations using the Journal Citation Reports? , 2009, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[8]  Marc Rysman,et al.  Identifying the Age Profile of Patent Citations , 2006 .

[9]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  A comparative study of first and all-author co-citation counting, and two different matrix generation approaches applied for author co-citation analyses , 2009, Scientometrics.

[10]  José Carlos Teixeira,et al.  Reforming scholarly publishing and knowledge communication: From the advent of the scholarly journal to the challenges of Open Access , 2005, Inf. Serv. Use.

[11]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  The delineation of an interdisciplinary specialty in terms of a journal set: The case of communication studies , 2009 .

[12]  Olle Persson.  All author citations versus first author citations , 2004, Scientometrics.

[13]  Marianne Wikgren,et al.  Health discussions on the Internet , 2001 .

[14]  Diana Lucio-Arias,et al.  Knowledge emergence in scientific communication: from “fullerenes” to “nanotubes” , 2007, Scientometrics.

[15]  Feifei Wang,et al.  Visualizing information science: Author direct citation analysis in China and around the world , 2015, J. Informetrics.

[16]  Katherine W. McCain,et al.  Visualizing a Discipline: An Author Co-Citation Analysis of Information Science, 1972-1995 , 1998, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[17]  Edsger W. Dijkstra,et al.  A note on two problems in connexion with graphs , 1959, Numerische Mathematik.

[18]  Roger W. Schvaneveldt,et al.  Pathfinder associative networks: studies in knowledge organization , 1990 .

[19]  E A Leicht,et al.  Community structure in directed networks. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[20]  Bethany S. Dohleman.  Exploratory social network analysis with Pajek , 2006 .

[21]  Andreas Strotmann,et al.  Evolution of research activities and intellectual influences in information science 1996-2005: Introducing author bibliographic-coupling analysis , 2008, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[22]  Thed N. van Leeuwen,et al.  Interdisciplinary dynamics of modern science: analysis of cross-disciplinary citation flows , 2000 .

[23]  M. Trajtenberg,et al.  International Knowledge Flows: Evidence from Patent Citations , 1998 .

[24]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Mapping the Chinese Science Citation Database in terms ofaggregated journal-journal citation relations. Journal of the American Society of Information Science & Technology, 56(14) 1469-1479 , 2005 .

[25]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Topical connections between the institutions within an organisation (institutional co-authorships, direct citation links and co-citations) , 2014, Scientometrics.

[26]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Top-down decomposition of the Journal Citation Reportof the Social Science Citation Index: Graph- and factor-analytical approaches , 2004, Scientometrics.

[27]  Chaomei Chen,et al.  Visualizing evolving networks: minimum spanning trees versus pathfinder networks , 2003, IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization 2003 (IEEE Cat. No.03TH8714).

[28]  Naoki Shibata,et al.  Comparative study on methods of detecting research fronts using different types of citation , 2009, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[29]  Manuel Trajtenberg,et al.  THE NBER/SLOAN PROJECT ON INDUSTRIAL TECHAIOLOGY AND PRODUCTIVITY: INCORPORATING LEARNING FROM PLANT VISITS AND INTERVIEWS INTO ECONOMIC RESEARCHt Knowledge Spillovers and Patent Citations: Evidence from a Survey of Inventors , 2000 .

[30]  Ming-yueh Tsay.  Knowledge flow out of the domain of information science: a bibliometric and citation analysis study , 2014, Scientometrics.

[31]  Yoshiyuki Takeda,et al.  Detecting emerging research fronts based on topological measures in citation networks of scientific publications , 2008 .

[32]  Jean-Loup Guillaume,et al.  Fast unfolding of communities in large networks , 2008, 0803.0476.

[33]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Mapping the Chinese Science Citation Database in terms of aggregated journal-journal citation relations , 2005, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[34]  Rebecca Henderson,et al.  Reprinted Article Putting patents in context: Exploring knowledge transfer from MIT , 2009 .

[35]  Belver C. Griffith,et al.  Scientific communication: Its role in the conduct of research and creation of knowledge. , 1971 .

[36]  Ismael Rafols,et al.  A global map of science based on the ISI subject categories , 2009, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[37]  Bart Verspagen,et al.  Knowledge Flows, Patent Citations and the Impact of Science on Technology , 2008 .

[38]  Erjia Yan,et al.  Finding knowledge paths among scientific disciplines , 2013, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[39]  Jonathan Furner,et al.  Scholarly communication and bibliometrics , 2005, Annu. Rev. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[40]  Ismael Rafols,et al.  Indicators of the interdisciplinarity of journals: Diversity, centrality, and citations , 2010, J. Informetrics.

[41]  Howard D. White,et al.  Authors as citers over time , 2001, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[42]  Olle Persson,et al.  Identifying research themes with weighted direct citation links , 2010, J. Informetrics.

[43]  魏屹东,et al.  Scientometrics , 2018, Encyclopedia of Big Data.

[44]  Howard D. White,et al.  Author cocitation: A literature measure of intellectual structure , 1981, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[45]  Erjia Yan,et al.  Disciplinary knowledge production and diffusion in science , 2016, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[46]  Renaud Lambiotte,et al.  Communities, knowledge creation, and information diffusion , 2009, J. Informetrics.

[47]  Loet Leydesdorff,et al.  Identifying research fields within business and management: a journal cross-citation analysis , 2012, J. Oper. Res. Soc..