Showing papers by "Robert J. W. Tijssen published in 1993"

The measurement of international scientific collaboration

Abstract: A growing science policy interest in international scientific collaboration has brought about a multitude of studies which attempt to measure the extent of international scientific collaboration between countries and to explore intercountry collaborative networks. This paper attempts to clarify the methodology that is being used or can be used for this purpose and discusses the adequacy of the methods. The paper concludes that, in an analysis of collaborative links, it is essential to use both absolute and relative measures. The latter normalize differences in country size. Each yields a different type of information. Absolute measures yield an answer to questions such as which countries are central in the international network of science, whether collaborative links reveal a centre — periphery relationship, and which countries are the most important collaborative partners of another country. Relative measures provide answers to questions of the intensity of collaborative links.

The neural net of neural network research

Abstract: In this paper we discuss the limits and potentials of bibliometric mapping based on a specific co-word analysis. The subject area is neural network research. Our approach is a ‘simulation’ of expert assessment by offering the reader a narrative of the field which can be used as background information when ‘reading’ the bibliometric maps. The central issue in the applicability of bibliometric maps is whether these maps may supply ‘additional intelligence’ to users. In other words, whether such a bibliometric tool has an epistemological value, in the sense that it ecriches existing knowledge by supplying ‘unexpected’ relations between specific ‘pieces’ of knowledge (‘synthetic value’) or by supplying ‘unexpected’ problems (‘creative value’). We argue that sophisticated bibliometric mapping techniques are indeed valuable for open new avenues to study science as a self-organizing system in the form of a ‘neural network like’ structure of which the bibliometric map is a first-order aproximation. In that sense, this paper deals with the ‘neural net of neural network research’ as our bibliometric techniques in fact mimic a connectionistic approach.

A scientometric cognitive study of neural network research: expert mental maps versus bibliometric maps

Abstract: This paper reports on a quantitative analytical methodology which deals with perceptions of scientific experts regarding the intellectual shape and contents (‘cognitive structure’) of their scientific domain. This study examines the method's utility for studying expert views in general, and, more specifically, its strengths and weaknesses as a tool for improving validation studies of bibliometric maps involving subject experts. The main premise is that expert views are based on their internal knowledge structures (‘mental schemes’) of which relevant features can be captured in quantitative data. This approach allows a rigorous and systematic way of studying mental schemes across subject experts. Spatial representations of their data (‘mental maps’) provide insight in properties underlying those knowledge structures. Data from different experts are reconciled to construct a ‘common’ mental map which displays a group view. This study includes a test to establish the validity of individual mental maps and common mental maps. The methodology is applied to the views of 14 researchers in the field of neural network research and related areas. Key-findings are: (i) mental maps can provide valid representations of expert mental schemes, (ii) experts sharing the same subject field are more likely to share views, (iii) expert judgements of bibliometric maps are affected by the structure of their own mental schemes, as well as (iv) by their views regarding the utility of those maps, and (v) common mental maps and a bibliometric co-word map based on the same set of items differ significantly, showing a resemblance on main features only.

Assessing multidisciplinary areas of science and technology: A synthetic bibliometric study of Dutch nuclear energy research

Abstract: This paper presents a selection of results of a comprehensive quantitative, research literature-based study of Dutch energy research. The primary goal of this paper is to provide an overview of what bibliometric data from ISI and non-ISI databases may offer to describe the state of affairs in a scientific field. It illustrates the added value of combining bibliometric indicators of publication output, international visibility, international co-operation, and interdisciplinarity in a study of nuclear energy research in the 1980's when its budget decreased dramatically.