The Structure of Scientific Literatures I: Identifying and Graphing Specialties

Abstract

In this paper we report a first experiment using a new computer-based technique to identify clusters of highly interactive documents in science. We contend that these clusters represent the scientific specialties which currently exhibit high levels of activity. This technique, we believe, opens the way to a systematic exploration of the entire specialty structure of science, including both the internal structure of specialties and their relationship to one another. That science is a mosaic of specialties, and not a unified whole, either socially or intellectually, is a frequently made assumption, but only recently has this infra-structure of science become the subject of systematic study. Most scientists have intuitive notions about the subdivisions of their fields, but no observer, however broadly trained, can gain an overall perspective on the scientific mosaic. A series of recent studies has called attention to the importance of specialties as 'building blocks' of science. Crawford's paper' described how one specialty, sleep research, is effectively organized as a communication system around certain key individuals and research centres. Griffith and Mullins2 have argued that major changes in a variety of disciplines have been generated within small, socially coherent groups. *325 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I 9I o6, USA.