Collaboration and Cognitive Structures in Social Science Research Fields. Towards Socio-Cognitive Analysis in Information Systems

Bibliographic information systems have to address the needs of users by providing “value-added-components.” For instance, users would benefit from knowing the social and cognitive structures of research fields. Research suggests that a relationship exists between actors' position in scientific networks and the innovativeness of themes they examine. The present study confirms and expands these results through a technique that relates the cognitive and social structures of a research field (socio-cognitive analysis). The results from two social science fields suggest that well-integrated actors are engaged in the consolidation of the mainstream, whereas new ideas are most likely to be introduced and pursued by social climbers, i.e., actors who are starting to form a social network of collaboration. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.