Bibliometric Evidence for a Hierarchy of the Sciences
نویسندگان
چکیده
The hypothesis of a Hierarchy of the Sciences, first formulated in the 19(th) century, predicts that, moving from simple and general phenomena (e.g. particle dynamics) to complex and particular (e.g. human behaviour), researchers lose ability to reach theoretical and methodological consensus. This hypothesis places each field of research along a continuum of complexity and "softness", with profound implications for our understanding of scientific knowledge. Today, however, the idea is still unproven and philosophically overlooked, too often confused with simplistic dichotomies that contrast natural and social sciences, or science and the humanities. Empirical tests of the hypothesis have usually compared few fields and this, combined with other limitations, makes their results contradictory and inconclusive. We verified whether discipline characteristics reflect a hierarchy, a dichotomy or neither, by sampling nearly 29,000 papers published contemporaneously in 12 disciplines and measuring a set of parameters hypothesised to reflect theoretical and methodological consensus. The biological sciences had in most cases intermediate values between the physical and the social, with bio-molecular disciplines appearing harder than zoology, botany or ecology. In multivariable analyses, most of these parameters were independent predictors of the hierarchy, even when mathematics and the humanities were included. These results support a "gradualist" view of scientific knowledge, suggesting that the Hierarchy of the Sciences provides the best rational framework to understand disciplines' diversity. A deeper grasp of the relationship between subject matter's complexity and consensus could have profound implications for how we interpret, publish, popularize and administer scientific research.
منابع مشابه
A Bibliometric Analysis of Open Strategy: A new Concept in Strategic Management
Strategy development has traditionally been an exclusive and secretive matter. However, some organizations have recently used IT to enable openness for making a strategy. The aim of this paper was to research the trends of open strategy by applying bibliometric mapping. The method involves identifying open strategy-related documents, including a sample of 1717 existing documents from 2000 to 20...
متن کاملA Bibliometric Analysis of Toxicology Publications of Iran and Turkey in ISI Web of Science
Background: Web of Science (WoS) is an online academic citation index provided by Thomson Reuters which supplies valuable bibliometric information for comparing impact of specific author, organization, or country in science production. The aim of this study was to compare toxicology publications of Iran and Turkey indexed in WoS from bibliometric point of view. Methods: The WoS database was ...
متن کاملBibliometric Analysis of the Dental Science Articles Published in The Iranian Journal of Medical Sciences (IJMS) from 2002 to 2015 over a 14-Year Period
متن کامل
Visualization of the Koomesh journal between 2006 and 2017: A bibliometric study
Introduction: The present study was conducted with the aim of analyzing the bibliometrics of Koomesh, as one of the oldest and most reputable Iranian medical journals. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted using a bibliometric method on the articles published in Koomesh during the years 2006-2017. For this purpose, through advanced search in the Scopus database, 764 papers were extrac...
متن کاملA bibliometric analysis on scientific productions of the institute of environmental research of Tehran university of medical sciences
Background and Objective: The bibliometric analysis is the most effective way to study the scientific output and trend of research. The purpose of this study is to analyze the scientific output of the Institute of Environmental Research (IER) at Tehran University of Medical Sciences using bibliometric technique. Materials and Methods: All related IER articles that have been indexed in Scopus a...
متن کاملRadiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging: a bibliometric study in Iran
Introduction: Nowadays, science mapping is considered an excellent technique for decision-makers to find solutions for problems in research planning and development. In this work, we aimed to depict a science map of “radiology, nuclear medicine, and medical imaging” in Iran. Methods: All publications indexed in Thomson Reuters Web of Science database in the fields mentioned above with at least...
متن کامل