Rafols, I; Meyer, M Diversity measures and network centralities as indicators of interdisciplinarity: Case studies in bionanoscience PROC OF ISSI 2007: 11TH INTL CONF OF THE ISSI, VOLS I AND II 631-642, 2007

[Eugene Garfield]

Email address: i.rafols at sussex.ac.uk

Author(s): Rafols, I (Rafols, Ismael); Meyer, M (Meyer, Martin) 

Title: Diversity measures and network centralities as indicators of 
interdisciplinarity: Case studies in bionanoscience 

Editor(s): TorresSalinas, D; Moed, HF 

Source: PROCEEDINGS OF ISSI 2007: 11TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE 
INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR SCIENTOMETRICS AND INFORMETRICS, VOLS I AND II 
631-642, 2007 

Language: English 
Document Type: Article 

Conference Title: 11th International Conference of the International-
Society-for-Scientrometrics-and-Informetrics 
Conference Date: JUN 25-27, 2007 

Conference Location: Madrid, SPAIN 

Conference Sponsors: Int Soc Scientrometr & Informetr, CSIC, Minist Educ & 
Ciencia, FECYT, Comunidad Madrid, Eugene Garfield Fdn, Thomson Sci, 
Elsevier, Journal Informetr, Scopus, Ayuntamiento Madrid, Sci Metrix, Univ 
Carlos III Madrid 

Author Keywords: interdisciplinary research; nanotechnology; nanoscience; 
diversity; indicators; social network analysis 

KeyWords Plus: SPECIALTY; SCIENCE 

Abstract: Mapping and evaluating interdisciplinarity poses major 
challenges, due to its multidimensional character and its inherent 
conflict with categorisation methods. Here we develop indicators of 
interdisciplinarity as cognitive diversity that are not dependent on 
categorisation. To do so, we integrate in a conceptual framework measures 
of diversity used in ecology and economics, the measures of similarity 
predominant in bibliometrics and recently proposed indicators of 
interdisciplinarity based on social network analysis. We carry out two 
case studies in bionanoscience which illustrate how these indicators do 
capture the diversity of research topics engaged by an author or a 
publication, in contrast to category-based indicators that fail to do so. 
We suggest that these simple and ready-to-use indicators of cognitive 
diversity may be of potential importance in comparative studies of 
emergent scientific and technological fields, where claims of novelty and 
interdisciplinarity are rife but not always justified. 

Addresses: Univ Sussex, SPRU, Brighton, E Sussex England. 
 
Publisher Name: INT SOC SCIENTOMETRICS & INFORMETRICS-ISSI 
Publisher Address: KATHOLIEKE UNIV LEUVEN, FACULTEIT E T E W, DEKENSTRAAT 
2, LEUVEN, B-3000, BELGIUM 

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