The operationalization of a journal set for the delineation of an interdisciplinary specialty: the case of Communication Studies

[Loet Leydesdorff]

Dear David, 
 
In addition to the effects which you note, science policy makers and
managers often translate a wish for more mission-orientation into a call for
more interdisciplinarity. The two concepts, however, can be defined
separately. 
 
Mission-orientation requires interdisciplinarity (or transdisciplinarity),
but interdisciplinarity does not always require mission-orientation. Inter-
or multi-disciplinarity can also refer to intellectual projects (e.g.,
nanoscience and nanotechnology during the period 1995-2005; science &
technology studies during the 1980s, etc.).
 
Best wishes, 
 
 
Loet
 
  _____  

Loet Leydesdorff 
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), 
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam. 
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681 
 <mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net> loet at leydesdorff.net ;
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/> http://www.leydesdorff.net/ 

 


  _____  

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics
[mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of David E. Wojick
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 5:26 PM
To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] The operationalization of a journal set for the
delineation of an interdisciplinary specialty: the case of Communication
Studies


Dear Loet,

In all this research is a distinction made between true interdisciplinary
work versus the migration of ideas? The two might have similar citation
patterns, which would confound the analysis.

The difficulty is that here is a significant ongoing migration of ideas from
discipline to discipline. The topology is a many-many-many....mapping,
along the lines of my description of technology in "Mapping Technology
Chaos:" http://www.powermag.com/business/320.html That is, there is both
divergence and convergence of migration paths. In particular, ideas
sometimes converge form several disciplines to create a new discipline.

A classic example is the migration of the concept of the "quantum of energy"
from heat (Planck) to light (Einstein) to electrons (Bohr), creating the new
discipline of atomic physics. There is no interdisciplinary research here,
but there is a well defined discipline to discipline citation trail.

David


The  <http://www.leydesdorff.net/commstudies/index.htm> operationalization
of a journal set for the delineation of an interdisciplinary specialty:
the case of  <http://www.leydesdorff.net/commstudies/index.htm>
Communication Studies

A journal set in an interdisciplinary and developing area can be determined
by including the journals classified under the most relevant ISI Subject
Categories into a journal-journal citation matrix. Despite the fuzzy
character of borders, factor analysis of the citation patterns enables us to
delineate the specific set by discarding the noise. This technique is
illustrated using communication studies as a hybrid development between
political science and social psychology. The development is visualized using
animations which support the claim that a specific journal set in
communication studies is developing, notably in the “being cited” patterns.
The resulting set of approximately 25 journals in communication studies is
much smaller and more focused than the 45 journals classified by the ISI
Subject Categories as “Communication.”

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

Carole Probst
Faculty of Communication Sciences, Università della Svizzera italiana,
Switzerland; carole.probst at lu.unisi.ch

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


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