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How accurately does Thomas Kuhn’s model of paradigm change describe the transition from the static view of the universe to the big bang theory in cosmology?

Author

Listed:
  • Werner Marx

    (Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research)

  • Lutz Bornmann

    (Professorship for Social Psychology and Research on Higher Education)

Abstract

Up to the 1960s the prevalent view of science was that it was a step-by-step undertaking in slow, piecemeal progression towards truth. Thomas Kuhn argued against this view and claimed that science always follows this pattern: after a phase of “normal” science, a scientific “revolution” occurs. Taking as a case study the transition from the static view of the universe to the Big Bang theory in cosmology, we appraised Kuhn’s theoretical approach by conducting a historical reconstruction and a citation analysis. As the results show, the transition in cosmology can be linked to many different persons, publications, and points in time. The findings indicate that there was not one (short term) scientific revolution in cosmology but instead a paradigm shift that progressed as a slow, piecemeal process.

Suggested Citation

  • Werner Marx & Lutz Bornmann, 2010. "How accurately does Thomas Kuhn’s model of paradigm change describe the transition from the static view of the universe to the big bang theory in cosmology?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 84(2), pages 441-464, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:84:y:2010:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-009-0107-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-009-0107-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Werner Marx & Manuel Cardona, 2009. "The citation impact outside references — formal versus informal citations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(1), pages 1-21, July.
    2. Chen, Chaomei & Chen, Yue & Horowitz, Mark & Hou, Haiyan & Liu, Zeyuan & Pellegrino, Donald, 2009. "Towards an explanatory and computational theory of scientific discovery," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 191-209.
    3. Helmut A. Abt, 2000. "Do Important Papers Produce High Citation Counts?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 48(1), pages 65-70, June.
    4. Lucio-Arias, Diana & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2009. "The dynamics of exchanges and references among scientific texts, and the autopoiesis of discursive knowledge," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 261-271.
    5. Steven A. Morris, 2005. "Manifestation of emerging specialties in journal literature: A growth model of papers, references, exemplars, bibliographic coupling, cocitation, and clustering coefficient distribution," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 56(12), pages 1250-1273, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Xuan Zhen Liu & Hui Fang, 2012. "Peer review and over-competitive research funding fostering mainstream opinion to monopoly. Part II," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 90(2), pages 607-616, February.
    2. Matthieu Ballandonne & Igor Cersosimo, 2021. "A note on reference publication year spectroscopy with incomplete information," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 4927-4939, June.
    3. Pablo Contreras Kallens & Rick Dale, 2018. "Exploratory mapping of theoretical landscapes through word use in abstracts," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(3), pages 1641-1674, September.

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