Preprint version available of "Main-path analysis and path -dependent transitions in HistCiteT-based historiograms"

[Loet Leydesdorff]

Main-path analysis and  <http://www.leydesdorff.net/histcite/index.htm>
path-dependent transitions  <http://www.leydesdorff.net/histcite/index.htm>
in HistCiteT-based historiograms

JASIST (forthcoming)
 
Diana Lucio-Arias & Loet Leydesdorff
 

Abstract. With the program HistCiteT it is possible to generate and
visualize the most relevant papers in a set of documents retrieved from the
Science Citation Index. Historical reconstructions of scientific
developments can be represented chronologically as developments in networks
of citation relations extracted from scientific literature. This study aims
to go beyond the historical reconstruction of scientific knowledge,
enriching the output of HistCiteT with algorithms from social network
analysis and information theory. Using main path analysis, it is possible to
highlight the structural backbone in the development of a scientific field.
The expected information value of the message can be used to indicate
whether change in the distribution (of citations) has occurred to such an
extent that a path-dependency is generated. This provides us with a measure
of evolutionary change between subsequent documents. The "forgetting and
rewriting" of historically prior events at the research front can thus be
indicated. These three methods are applied to a set of documents related to
fullerenes and the fullerene-like structures of nanotubes.

 
 <http://www.leydesdorff.net/histcite/histcite.pdf> <click here for pdf>
 
  _____  

Loet Leydesdorff 
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
 <mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net> loet at leydesdorff.net ;
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/> http://www.leydesdorff.net/ 

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