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Phylomemetic Patterns in Science Evolution—The Rise and Fall of Scientific Fields

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  • David Chavalarias
  • Jean-Philippe Cointet

Abstract

We introduce an automated method for the bottom-up reconstruction of the cognitive evolution of science, based on big-data issued from digital libraries, and modeled as lineage relationships between scientific fields. We refer to these dynamic structures as phylomemetic networks or phylomemies, by analogy with biological evolution; and we show that they exhibit strong regularities, with clearly identifiable phylomemetic patterns. Some structural properties of the scientific fields - in particular their density -, which are defined independently of the phylomemy reconstruction, are clearly correlated with their status and their fate in the phylomemy (like their age or their short term survival). Within the framework of a quantitative epistemology, this approach raises the question of predictibility for science evolution, and sketches a prototypical life cycle of the scientific fields: an increase of their cohesion after their emergence, the renewal of their conceptual background through branching or merging events, before decaying when their density is getting too low.

Suggested Citation

  • David Chavalarias & Jean-Philippe Cointet, 2013. "Phylomemetic Patterns in Science Evolution—The Rise and Fall of Scientific Fields," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-11, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0054847
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054847
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    Cited by:

    1. Chao Min & Qingyu Chen & Erjia Yan & Yi Bu & Jianjun Sun, 2021. "Citation cascade and the evolution of topic relevance," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(1), pages 110-127, January.
    2. Juste Raimbault, 2019. "Exploration of an interdisciplinary scientific landscape," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(2), pages 617-641, May.
    3. Chavalarias David & Beatrice De Gelder & Guido Caldarelli & Melanie Dulong de Rosnay & Antonio A. Casilli & Alexandre Delanoë & Luisa Fassi & Divina Frau-Meigs & Bertrand Jouve & Andrzej Nowak & Vícto, 2023. "Toward a Research Agenda on Digital Media and Humanity Well-Being," Working Papers hal-04091733, HAL.
    4. Antonin Bergeaud & Julia Schmidt & Riccardo Zago, 2022. "Patents that match your standards: firm-level evidence on competition and innovation," POID Working Papers 040, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. David Lenz & Peter Winker, 2020. "Measuring the diffusion of innovations with paragraph vector topic models," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, January.
    6. Loconto, Allison & Desquilbet, Marion & Moreau, Théo & Couvet, Denis & Dorin, Bruno, 2020. "The land sparing – land sharing controversy: Tracing the politics of knowledge," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    7. Xiaoguang Wang & Qikai Cheng & Wei Lu, 2014. "Analyzing evolution of research topics with NEViewer: a new method based on dynamic co-word networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(2), pages 1253-1271, November.
    8. Quentin Lobbé, 2021. "Multi-scale methods for reconstructing collective shapes of digital diasporas," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Antonin Bergeaud & Yoann Potiron & Juste Raimbault, 2017. "Classifying patents based on their semantic content," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-22, April.
    10. Abdelghani Maddi & Yves Gingras, 2021. "Gender Diversity In Research Teams And Citation Impact In Economics And Management," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 1381-1404, December.
    11. Hoyoon Lee & Dawoon Jeong & Jeong-Dong Lee, 2023. "Drivers of institutional evolution: phylogenetic inertia and ecological pressure," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 279-308, April.
    12. Qing Ping & Chaomei Chen, 2018. "LitStoryTeller+: an interactive system for multi-level scientific paper visual storytelling with a supportive text mining toolbox," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 1887-1944, September.
    13. Wenyuan Liu & Andrea Nanetti & Siew Ann Cheong, 2017. "Knowledge evolution in physics research: An analysis of bibliographic coupling networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, September.
    14. Ruth Zárate Rueda & Yolima Ivonne Beltrán Villamizar & Luis Eduardo Becerra Ardila, 2023. "A Retrospective Approach to Pro-Environmental Behavior from Environmental Education: An Alternative from Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-19, March.
    15. Bergeaud Antonin & Schmidt Julia & Zago Riccardo, 2022. "Patents that Match your Standards: Firm-level Evidence on Competition and Growth," Working papers 876, Banque de France.
    16. Michel Zitt, 2015. "Meso-level retrieval: IR-bibliometrics interplay and hybrid citation-words methods in scientific fields delineation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(3), pages 2223-2245, March.
    17. Antoine Peris & Evert Meijers & Maarten Ham, 2018. "The Evolution of the Systems of Cities Literature Since 1995: Schools of Thought and their Interaction," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 533-554, September.
    18. Matteo Lascialfari & Marie-Benoît Magrini & Guillaume Cabanac, 2022. "Unpacking research lock-in through a diachronic analysis of topic cluster trajectories in scholarly publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6165-6189, November.
    19. David Tucket & Antoine Mandel & Diana Mangalagiu & Allen Abramson & Jochen Hinkel & Konstantinos Katsikopoulos & Alan Kirman & Thierry Malleret & Igor Mozetic & Paul Ormerod & Robert Elliot Smith & To, 2015. "Uncertainty, Decision Science, and Policy Making: A Manifesto for a Research Agenda," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-02057279, HAL.
    20. repec:hal:pseose:hal-02057279 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Sun, Xiaoling & Ding, Kun & Lin, Yuan, 2016. "Mapping the evolution of scientific fields based on cross-field authors," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 750-761.
    22. David Chavalarias & Quentin Lobbé & Alexandre Delanoë, 2022. "Draw me Science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 545-575, January.
    23. Andrea Palmucci & Hao Liao & Andrea Napoletano & Andrea Zaccaria, 2020. "Where is your field going? A machine learning approach to study the relative motion of the domains of physics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, June.
    24. Claudia Jazmín Galeano-Barrera & María Eugenia Arango Ospina & Edgar Mauricio Mendoza García & Dewar Rico-Bautista & Efrén Romero-Riaño, 2022. "Exploring the Evolution of the Topics and Research Fields of Territorial Development from a Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-31, May.

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