Mapping the Geography of Science

[Loet Leydesdorff]

Mapping the Geography of Science: Distribution Patterns 
and Networks of Relations among Cities and Institutes

Using Google Earth, Google Maps and/or network visualization programs such
as Pajek, one can overlay the network of relations among addresses in
scientific publications on the geographic map. We discuss the pros en cons
of the various options, and provide software (freeware) for bridging
existing gaps between the Science Citation Indices and Scopus, on the one
side, and these various visualization tools, on the other. At the level of
city names, the global map can be drawn reliably on the basis of the
available address information. At the level of the names of organizations
and institutes, there are problems of unification both in the ISI-databases
and Scopus. Pajek enables us to combine the visualization with statistical
analysis, whereas the Google Maps and its derivates provide superior tools
at the Internet.

Pdf-version at http://www.leydesdorff.net/maps/Geography_of_Science.pdf
Html at http://www.leydesdorff.net/maps/Geography_of_Science.htm


Loet Leydesdorff, 
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR), University of
Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
loet at leydesdorff.net.
 
Olle Persson, 
Department of Sociology, Umeå University, SE 901 87 Umeå, Sweden;
Olle.Persson at soc.umu.se. 

** apologies for cross-postings