Towards Scientography

Maps serve as tools of navigation by accurately depicting spatial relationships. In doing so, maps help us to move from place to place. We can also use maps, however, merely to contemplate the way in which things are distributed and the meaning of their relationships. ISF’s multidimensional-scaling maps of the sciences serve both purposes. Our maps represent where researchers have been. As historical records, then, these maps are surveys of the geography of scientific ideas and discoveries-intellectual gazetteers, if you will—for a given year. They show relationships among fields and how closely linked one discipline is to another. They reveal which realms of science are being most actively investigated and the individuals, publications, institutions, and nations that are currently preeminent in these areas. By examining and by contemplating chronologically sequential maps, we can observe the manner in which scientific knowledge advances. While our maps cannot predict where researchers will go, they can serve as indicators. Changes from year to year reveal trends, and the maps, therefore, can serve as forecasting tools. On a certain subject, a novice can at a glance identify those articles and books that experts use most frequently. Even the expert may profit from perusal of the maps; for example, the unsuspected proximity of another area of research to hk or her own area might suggest ahernate routes of analysis that can yield new understandings, The term “scientography,” coined by EN’s manager of basic research, George Vladutz, reflects both the derivation of mapping from the field of scientometncs and the broad, “geographic” focus of the maps themselves. Henry Small and I published the paper that follows in the Journal of Information Science. 1 Itdescribes the current state of mapping techniques, reports some findings for the year 1983, and suggests the potential contribution of mapping to the history of science. (Maps for 1984 have recently appeared;z the reader may wish to compare these with the 1983 maps presented here. ) Since multidimensional-scaling maps for research fronts appear regularly in Current Contents@, itseemed appropriate to reprint the article in toto. As director of corp~ rate research, Henry Small is working closely with Alexander Gnmwade and me in utilizing these maps to provide the basis for the forthcoming 1S1 Atlas of Sciencem . 0198.51s1