IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/infome/v8y2014i1p43-58.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Conceptualizing the interdisciplinary diffusion and evolution of emerging fields: The case of systems biology

Author

Listed:
  • Goldman, Alyssa W.

Abstract

This paper contributes to the longitudinal study and representation of the diffusion of scholarly knowledge through bibliometrics. The case of systems biology is used to illustrate a means for considering the structure and different roles of journals in the diffusion of a relatively new field to diverse subject areas. Using a bipartite network analysis of journals and subject categories, a core–intermediary–periphery diffusion structure is detected through comparative analysis of betweenness centrality over time. Systems biology diffuses from a core of foundational, theoretical areas to more specific, applied, practical fields, most of which relate to human health. Next, cluster analysis is applied to subject category co-occurrence networks to longitudinally trace the movement of fields within the core–intermediary–periphery structure. The results of these analyses reveal patterns of systems biology's diffusion across both theoretical and applied fields, and are also used to suggest how the dynamics of a field's interdisciplinary evolution can be realized. The author concludes by presenting a typology for considering how journals may function to support attributes of the core–intermediary–periphery structure and diffusion patterns more broadly.

Suggested Citation

  • Goldman, Alyssa W., 2014. "Conceptualizing the interdisciplinary diffusion and evolution of emerging fields: The case of systems biology," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 43-58.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:43-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2013.10.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157713000862
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.joi.2013.10.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johan Bollen & Herbert Van de Sompel & Aric Hagberg & Luis Bettencourt & Ryan Chute & Marko A Rodriguez & Lyudmila Balakireva, 2009. "Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(3), pages 1-11, March.
    2. Leydesdorff, Loet & Rafols, Ismael, 2011. "Indicators of the interdisciplinarity of journals: Diversity, centrality, and citations," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 87-100.
    3. Loet Leydesdorff & Daniele Rotolo & Ismael Rafols, 2012. "Bibliometric perspectives on medical innovation using the medical subject Headings of PubMed," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(11), pages 2239-2253, November.
    4. Johan Bollen & Herbert Van de Sompel & Aric Hagberg & Ryan Chute, 2009. "A Principal Component Analysis of 39 Scientific Impact Measures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(6), pages 1-11, June.
    5. Ismael Rafols & Martin Meyer, 2010. "Diversity and network coherence as indicators of interdisciplinarity: case studies in bionanoscience," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 82(2), pages 263-287, February.
    6. Stephen Johnson, 1967. "Hierarchical clustering schemes," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 32(3), pages 241-254, September.
    7. Liu, Yuxian & Rousseau, Ronald & Guns, Raf, 2013. "A layered framework to study collaboration as a form of knowledge sharing and diffusion," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 651-664.
    8. Loet Leydesdorff & Ismael Rafols, 2009. "A global map of science based on the ISI subject categories," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(2), pages 348-362, February.
    9. Wagner, Caroline S. & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2005. "Network structure, self-organization, and the growth of international collaboration in science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1608-1618, December.
    10. Ismael Rafols & Loet Leydesdorff, 2009. "Content‐based and algorithmic classifications of journals: Perspectives on the dynamics of scientific communication and indexer effects," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 60(9), pages 1823-1835, September.
    11. Yuxian Liu & Ronald Rousseau, 2010. "Knowledge diffusion through publications and citations: A case study using ESI-fields as unit of diffusion," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(2), pages 340-351, February.
    12. Yuxian Liu & Ronald Rousseau, 2010. "Knowledge diffusion through publications and citations: A case study using ESI‐fields as unit of diffusion," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(2), pages 340-351, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yawen Zou & Manfred D. Laubichler, 2017. "Measuring the contributions of Chinese scholars to the research field of systems biology from 2005 to 2013," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(3), pages 1615-1631, March.
    2. Gregorio González-Alcaide & Pedro Llorente & José M. Ramos, 2016. "Bibliometric indicators to identify emerging research fields: publications on mass gatherings," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 1283-1298, November.
    3. Jeong, Yoo Kyung & Xie, Qing & Yan, Erjia & Song, Min, 2020. "Examining drug and side effect relation using author–entity pair bipartite networks," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1).
    4. June Young Lee & Sejung Ahn & Dohyun Kim, 2021. "Deep learning-based prediction of future growth potential of technologies," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(6), pages 1-16, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen Carley & Alan L. Porter, 2012. "A forward diversity index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 407-427, February.
    2. Rafols, Ismael & Leydesdorff, Loet & O’Hare, Alice & Nightingale, Paul & Stirling, Andy, 2012. "How journal rankings can suppress interdisciplinary research: A comparison between Innovation Studies and Business & Management," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 1262-1282.
    3. Xiaojun Hu & Ronald Rousseau & Jin Chen, 2012. "Structural indicators in citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(2), pages 451-460, May.
    4. Leydesdorff, Loet & Rafols, Ismael, 2011. "Indicators of the interdisciplinarity of journals: Diversity, centrality, and citations," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 87-100.
    5. Ismael Rafols & Alan Porter & Loet Leydesdorff, 2009. "Overlay Maps of Science: a New Tool for Research Policy," SPRU Working Paper Series 179, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    6. Yan, Erjia & Ding, Ying & Cronin, Blaise & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2013. "A bird's-eye view of scientific trading: Dependency relations among fields of science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 249-264.
    7. Rousseau, Ronald & Hu, Xiaojun, 2013. "Two time series, their meaning and some applications," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 603-610.
    8. Rousseau, Ronald & Liu, Yuxian & Ye, Fred Y., 2012. "A preliminary investigation on diffusion through a layered system," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 177-191.
    9. Shunshun Shi & Wenyu Zhang & Shuai Zhang & Jie Chen, 2018. "Does prestige dimension influence the interdisciplinary performance of scientific entities in knowledge flow? Evidence from the e-government field," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(2), pages 1237-1264, November.
    10. Ruimin Ma & Erjia Yan, 2016. "Uncovering inter-specialty knowledge communication using author citation networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 839-854, November.
    11. Timothy D. Bowman & Andrew Tsou & Chaoqun Ni & Cassidy R. Sugimoto, 2014. "Post-interdisciplinary frames of reference: exploring permeability and perceptions of disciplinarity in the social sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(3), pages 1695-1714, December.
    12. Xuan Liu & Shan Jiang & Hsinchun Chen & Catherine A. Larson & Mihail C. Roco, 2015. "Modeling knowledge diffusion in scientific innovation networks: an institutional comparison between China and US with illustration for nanotechnology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1953-1984, December.
    13. Loet Leydesdorff & Duncan Kushnir & Ismael Rafols, 2014. "Interactive overlay maps for US patent (USPTO) data based on International Patent Classification (IPC)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 1583-1599, March.
    14. Meijun Liu & Xiao Hu & Jiang Li, 2018. "Knowledge flow in China’s humanities and social sciences," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 607-626, March.
    15. Karmen Stopar & Damjana Drobne & Klemen Eler & Tomaz Bartol, 2016. "Citation analysis and mapping of nanoscience and nanotechnology: identifying the scope and interdisciplinarity of research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(2), pages 563-581, February.
    16. Sándor Soós & George Kampis, 2012. "Beyond the basemap of science: mapping multiple structures in research portfolios: evidence from Hungary," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(3), pages 869-891, December.
    17. Saeed-Ul Hassan & Peter Haddawy, 2013. "Measuring international knowledge flows and scholarly impact of scientific research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(1), pages 163-179, January.
    18. Seolmin Yang & So Young Kim, 2023. "Knowledge-integrated research is more disruptive when supported by homogeneous funding sources: a case of US federally funded research in biomedical and life sciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(6), pages 3257-3282, June.
    19. Chen, Lixin, 2017. "Do patent citations indicate knowledge linkage? The evidence from text similarities between patents and their citations," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 63-79.
    20. Jiancheng Guan & Wenjia Zhu, 2014. "How knowledge diffuses across countries: a case study in the field of management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(3), pages 2129-2144, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:8:y:2014:i:1:p:43-58. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/joi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.