Mapping knowledge. Topic analysis of science locates researchers in disciplinary landscape

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F67985955%3A_____%2F25%3A00601845" target="_blank" >RIV/67985955:_____/25:00601845 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101950" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101950</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101950" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101950</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Mapping knowledge. Topic analysis of science locates researchers in disciplinary landscape

Original language description

The study presents a new approach for constructing an epistemological coordinate system that locates individual researchers within the disciplinary landscape of science. Drawing on a comprehensive national dataset of scientific outputs, we build a topic model based on a semantic network of publications and terms derived from textual content comprising titles, abstracts, and keywords. Compositional data transformation applied to the topic model enables a geometric analysis of topics across disciplines. The design yields four important results for addressing the gap between knowledge and knowledge-producers. (1) Hierarchical clustering confirms an alignment between traditional disciplinary classification and our empirical, bottom-up topic model. (2) Principal component analysis reveals three axes – Culture–Nature, Life–Non-life, and Materials–Methods – that primarily structure this scientific knowledge space. (3) The projection of individual researchers via their topic portfolios allows to locate them relationally on these three continuous measures of epistemological distinctions. (4) The robustness of our approach is validated by examining the links between researchers’ topic orientation and supplementary variables such as publication practices, gender, institutional affiliations, and funding sources. Our method could inform science policy and evaluation practices, as well as be extended to uncover associations between products and producers in other cultural fields.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50401 - Sociology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GJ20-01752Y" target="_blank" >GJ20-01752Y: Funded and Unfunded Research in the Czech Republic: Scientometric Analysis and Topic Modeling</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Poetics

ISSN

0304-422X

e-ISSN

1872-7514

Volume of the periodical

—

Issue of the periodical within the volume

108

Country of publishing house

NL - THE KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS

Number of pages

20

Pages from-to

101950

UT code for WoS article

001363761900001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85209595872