Patterns of author cocitation in information policy: Evidence of social, collaborative and cognitive structure

This paper presents the findings of an author cocitation study in the field of information policy. Cocitation frequencies for 21 leading authors over the period 1972–1997 were obtained from the multidisciplinary databaseSocial Sciences Citation Index. The raw cocitation counts were transformed into a matrix of Pearson correlation profiles and subsequently visualised using multidimensional scaling techniques. An initial interpretation of the structure of the field of information policy was attempted, drawing on a range of non-bibliometric evidence. The results of a customised postal questionnaire to the data subjects themselves supports the present writer's allocation of the authors into thematic clusters. These results suggest that the social, collaborative and intellectual structure of information policy scholarship are highly convergent.     

The author cocitation structure of macroeconomics

Cocitations of the work of 42 prominent macroeconomists (past and present) were examined, using multidimensional scaling and clustering techniques. Author clusters, corresponding primarily to current schools of thought in macroeconomics, are arranged along two dimensions of scholarly style; 1) a relative orientation toward quantitative or mathematical models and issues and 2) a continuum of active concern with older scholarship in the field. Social relationships demonstrated by these techniques include joint journal editorship, mentor-student links and institutional affiliation. New to this study is evidence of the cocitation of prominent authors as ‘concept symbols’.     

A new author’s productivity index: p-index

In this paper a new author’s productivity index is introduced, namely the golden productivity index. The proposed index measures the productivity of an individual researcher evaluating the number of papers as well as the rank of co-authorship. It provides an efficient method to measure the author’s contribution in articles writing, compared to other ordinary methods. It gives emphasis to the first authors contributions due to the fact that traditionally the rank of each author shows the magnitude of his contribution in the article.     

Displaying strengths and weaknesses in national R&D performance through document cocitation

Document cocitation analysis, as developed by Small and Griffith, was employed as a means of assessing current Dutch participation in science. The method compared overall Dutch published contributions to science (1–2%) with the percentage of Dutch papers in both the cited cores of clusters and the citing margins of clusters (newly published papers). It was possible to identify clusters ranging form ones with strong Dutch participation to those without Dutch cited or citing papers. The method may help policymakers to detect areas of special concern. The technique can be used for any nation, but may be particularly helpful for the smaller developed countries. We consider the ideal distribution of scientific productivity for those countries.     

Politische Ikonographie von Wissenschaft: Die Abbildung von Teylers “ungemein großer” Elektrisiermaschine, 1785/87

This articles deals with the illustration of the very large electrical machine in Teyler’s Museum, Haarlem, as it was published by Martinus van Marum in 1787, and its complex production process. It is argued that the illustration reflects the political implications of the experimental programme in Teyler’s Museum and the incompatible ideals of science of collective versus individual achievement the different actors held. The author contends that the absence of explicit references to political questions within the experimental science is a fundamental characteristic of their political function in Dutch culture. This function can be analysed by studying the visual representations of experiments and instruments like the electrical machine.     

Neural networks research in context: A longitudinal journal cocitation analysis of an emerging interdisciplinary field

A cocitation analysis for thirty-six journals and other publications in neural networks research and related disciplines was conducted over three consecutive time periods spanning the years 1990-early 1997. Cluster analysis and MDS maps identified groupings representing foundation research areas (physics/optics, computer engineering, neuroscience, expert systems & cognition, and perception) along with neural networks and mathematical modeling of neural systems. Principal components analysis demonstrated a similar structure, with several journals and books loading on a majority of the factors. An INDSCAL analysis showed an increasing separation between natural sciences/psychology and engineering/neural networks research from the first time period to the third.     

A new technique for building maps of large scientific domains based on the cocitation of classes and categories

Our objective is the generation of schematic visualizations as interfaces for scientific domain analysis. We propose a new technique that uses thematic classification (classes and categories) as entities of cocitation and units of measure, and demonstrate the viability of this methodology through the representation and analysis of a domain of great dimensions. The main features of the maps obtained are discussed, and proposals are made for future improvements and applications. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A procedure for decreasing uncertainty in the identification of chemical compounds based on their literature citation and cocitation. Two case studies

An identification procedure connected with selection of candidates for identification according to high values of their literature citation and cocitation is suggested. The citation rate of the compound is the number of different literature units, such as papers, patents, etc., recording its name. The cocitation rate is the number of such units mutually recording the names of two corresponding compounds or the compound and the sample/matrix. General citation of a chemical compound is assumed to be related to the prior probability of its being contained in a sample to be analyzed. This citation measures abundance and popularity of the compound. Cocitation of a compound with a known/identified constituent of a sample is related to their mutual similarity in structure or properties, origin, use, etc. This data processing method is validated by counting citations and cocitations for detected impurities in pure n-hexane and naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in waste gas, as compared with counts for similar or dissimilar compounds that are absent in the samples. The analytes are preidentified by combined gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques. A median and a mean value of citation and cocitation are always higher for the group of unambiguously identified compounds. A difference between identified and similar compounds in citations or cocitations may be rather insignificant, with combined evaluation of both indicators distinguishing these groups. Chemical dissimilarity results in a large difference in cocitation values.     

Research fronts in library and information science in Spain (1985–1994)

Publications and author cocitations in library and information science in Spain during the period from 1985 to 1994 were analyzed as a measure of the structure, specificity and composition of research fronts in this country. A cocitation matrix developed from an ad hoc database was subjected to cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling and principal components analysis. The resulting cocitation maps identified specific areas of research and their knowledge bases. We inferred the degree of consolidation of the discipline of library and information science, and of the subdisciplines informetrics, librarianship and university affiliation, from the research activities revealed. In this respect, the conclusions from the study show the existence of several research fronts in Spanish literature the contents of which are in most cases difficult to compare with those in other countries. A lesser degree of maturity of research in this field is shown.     

On Measuring of Overall Mechanical Properties of Small Animal Bones using Grid Method

Overall mechanical properties of bones strongly depend on their microstructure. They can be determined by developing adequate micromechanics modeling or by direct experimental measurements. Both approaches are important for a better understanding of the connection between the bone’s microstructure and resulting macro-properties. In this work, a simple experimental method is proposed for the determination of the longitudinal Young’s modulus and Poisson’s coefficient of small, and especially short, bones, based on a combination of compression and grid method. The developed experimental set-up allows measuring the displacement and strain distribution on the surface of the bone sample subjected to a compressive test, as well as the longitudinal Young’s modulus and Poisson’s coefficient. Some results for the determined macroproperties of small bones are presented and compared with the results obtained using a more sophisticated method – the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) one.     

Detection of bearing defects in three-phase induction motors using Park’s transform and radial basis function neural networks

This paper investigates the application of induction motor stator current signature analysis (MCSA) using Park’s transform for the detection of rolling element bearing damages in three-phase induction motor. The paper first discusses bearing faults and Park’s transform, and then gives a brief overview of the radial basis function (RBF) neural networks algorithm. Finally, system information and the experimental results are presented. Data acquisition and Park’s transform algorithm are achieved by using LabVIEW and the neural network algorithm is achieved by using MATLAB programming language. Experimental results show that it is possible to detect bearing damage in induction motors using an ANN algorithm.     

The state of science and technology in Africa (2000–2004): A scientometric assessment

This article reports for first time the state of science and technology in the African Continent on the basis of two scientometric indicators — number of research publications and number of patents awarded. Our analysis shows that Africa produced 68,945 publications over the 2000–2004 period or 1.8% of the World’s publications. In comparison India produced 2.4% and Latin America 3.5% of the World’s research. More detailed analysis reveals that research in Africa is concentrated in just two countries — South Africa and Egypt. These two counties produce just above 50% of the Continent’s publications and the top eight countries produce above 80% of the Continent’s research. Disciplinary analysis reveals that few African countries have the minimum number of scientists required for the functioning of a scientific discipline. Examination of the Continent’s inventive profile, as manifested in patents, indicates that Africa produces less than one thousand of the world’s inventions. Furthermore 88% of the Continent’s inventive activity is concentrated in South Africa. The article recommends that the African Governments should pay particular attention in developing their national research systems.     

How to identify emerging research fields using scientometrics: An example in the field of Information Security

In the highly competitive world, there has been a concomitant increase in the need for the research and planning methodology, which can perform an advanced assessment of technological opportunities and an early perception of threats and possibilities of the emerging technology according to the nation’s economic and social status. This research is aiming to provide indicators and visualization methods to measure the latest research trend and aspect underlying scientific and technological documents to researchers and policy planners using “co-word analysis”. Information Security field is a highly prospective market value. In this paper, we presented an analysis Information Security. Co-word analysis was employed to reveal patterns and trends in the Information Security fields by measuring the association strength of terms representatives of relevant publications or other texts produced in the Information Security field. Data were collected from SCI and the critical keywords could be extracted from the author keywords. These extracted keywords were further standardized. In order to trace the dynamic changes in the Information Security field, we presented a variety of technology mapping. The results showed that the Information Security field has some established research theme and also rapidly transforms to embrace new themes.     

Specific Heat Measurements by a Thermal Relaxation Method: Influence of Convection and Conduction

This paper involves the well-known thermal relaxation method for measurement of the specific heat (c) of thin solid samples. Although this method was applied successfully in recent years for the characterization of different materials, in this work some aspects that must be taken into account in order to avoid problems based on satisfying the required experimental conditions of heat flux imposed by the physical model used for data analysis and processing will be discussed. For this purpose, for a given experimental geometry, the heat diffusion equation will be solved in order to obtain the sample’s requirements for reliable measurements of c, regarding its thickness and thermal conductivity. An experimental device is described that can be used for the study of the influence of heat dissipation by convection on the method. A computer simulation was performed for comparing the simple model with one that takes to in account the gradient of temperature inside the sample. The results of measurements are presented.Paper presented at the Seventeenth European Conference on Thermophysical Properties, September 5–8, 2005, Bratislava, Slovak Republic.Part of this work was performed when the author was at Universidad de La Habana, Facultad de Física, San Lázaro y L, Vedado 10400, La Habana, Cuba.     

Effect of Moisture on Thermal Conductivity of Lime-Based Composites

The effect of moisture content on the thermal conductivity of lime-based composites is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Experimental measurements of thermal conductivity as a function of moisture content from a dry state to a fully water saturated state are performed using an impulse technique. The obtained experimental data are analyzed at first with fundamental theoretical models, and it is found that they conform to both Wiener’s and Hashin–Shtrikman’s bounds. The thermal conductivity of wet lime-based composites is then analyzed using several homogenization techniques, among them, Lichtenecker’s, Polder and van Santen’s, and Dobson’s formulas. The validity of applied effective-media treatments is assessed comparing the measured and calculated data. Lichtenecker’s equation is found to achieve the best agreement with experimental measurements.     

Geschlechterforschung ist Wissenschaftsforschung – Wissenschaftsforschung ist Geschlechterforschung

The articles collected in this number all originate from a section of the 2004 annual meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik.The section was organized by the Berlin Feminist Science Studies Workgroup (BFSSW) at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. The contributions are dedicated to recent accounts and research topics in a field constituted by the intersection between 20th century (life) sciences and gender studies.They view modern life sciences as situated in hybrid fields of theory and practice, public and scientific discourse, of experimental procedures and practices of control. Methodological approaches range from Derrida’s notion of deconstruction, Foucault’s regulatory power and governmentality, Butler’s method of analyzing performativity and Haraway’s situated knowledge. They focus on dispositifs of research and regulation, visualizing procedures in the human sciences, and the emergence of new objects of biopolitics. One contribution focuses on the ‘politics of emotions’ and the paradoxical effects of laughter in ‘sexed’ and ‘gendered’ discourses and explores the productivity of humor for a gender-sensitive way of ‘doing history’. This introduction deals with recent developments in – mainly German – gender studies during the last two decades under the triple perspective of women in science, science of gender and gender in science.

---

Geschlechterforschung ist Wissenschaftsforschung – Wissenschaftsforschung ist Geschlechterforschung Einführung in den Themenschwerpunkt “Wissenschaftsgeschichte als Geschlechtergeschichte”

     

Perimeter analysis of the Von Koch island, application to the evolution of grain boundaries during heating

This paper introduces an analyse of the fractal dimension by Richardson’s method. Two different ways to calculate the fractal dimension are presented with their related calculation errors and applied the Von Koch curves. A Monte-Carlo simulation of the evolution of the grains’ boundaries when heating shows that the interfaces lose their fractal characteristics as reported in experimental work. This result is interpreted by dissipation of the energy during the evolution of the grain boundary.     

Zonotopes and the LP-Newton method

Although linear programming problems can be solved in polynomial time by the ellipsoid method and interior-point algorithms, there still remains a long-standing open problem of devising a strongly polynomial algorithm for linear programming (or of disproving the existence of such an algorithm). The present work is motivated by an attempt toward solving this problem. Linear programming problems can be formulated in terms of a zonotope, a kind of greedy polyhedron, on which linear optimization is made easily. We propose a method, called the LP-Newton method, for linear programming that is based on the zonotope formulation and the minimum-norm-point algorithm of Philip Wolfe. The LP-Newton method is a finite algorithm even for real-number input data with exact arithmetic computations. We show some preliminary computational results to examine the behavior of the LP-Newton method. Major part of this paper was presented as a plenary talk with the same title at ICOTA7 (December 12–15, 2007, Kobe, Japan) by the first author. The fourth author’s research was carried out while visiting RIMS in August 2007.     

Development of an experimental technique to assess the permeability of metal coated polymer films

The experimental time required to measure water vapour permeability of barrier film using the cup method is extremely long. In this study, a new technique is proposed, based on light transmission. This fast and accurate method was first validated using model films constituted of aluminized PET (polyethylene terephthalate) with aluminium layers of different thicknesses (<100 nm). It was possible to show that the ‘illuminating’ method could advantageously be employed to control the film’s barrier properties during their fabrication. In a second step, the method was tentatively used to measure the changes in barrier properties over time, when the samples are submitted to severe hydrothermal ageing (70 °C, 90% relative humidity [RH]). It was concluded that the complex degradation mechanism prevents accurate measurement while ageing.     

A hybrid mapping of information science

Previous studies have shown that hybrid clustering methods that incorporate textual content and bibliometric information can outperform clustering methods that use only one of these components. In this paper we apply a hybrid clustering method based on Fisher’s inverse chisquare to integrate full-text with citations and to provide a mapping of the field of information science. We quantitatively and qualitatively asses the added value of such an integrated analysis and we investigate whether the clustering outcome is a better representation of the field by comparing with a text-only clustering and with another hybrid method based on linear combination of distance matrices. Our data set consists of almost 1000 articles and notes published in the period 2002–2004 in 5 representative journals. The optimal number of clusters for the field is 5, determined by using a combination of distance-based and stability-based methods. Term networks present the cognitive structure of the field and are complemented by the most representative publications. Three large traditional sub-disciplines, particularly, information retrieval, bibliometrics/scientometrics, and more social aspects, and two smaller clusters about patent analysis and webometrics, can be distinguished.