TY - JOUR

T1 - Mapping research fields using co-nomination

T2 - the case of hyper-authorship heavy flavour physics

AU - Karaulova, Maria

AU - Nedeva, Maria

AU - Thomas, Duncan A.

N1 - Authors have contributed equally and authorship is in alphabetical order.

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - This paper introduces the use of co-nomination as a method to map research fields by directly accessing their knowledge networks organised around exchange relationships of intellectual influence. Co-nomination is a reputation-based approach combining snowball sampling and social network analysis. It compliments established bibliometric mapping methods by addressing some of their typical shortcomings in specific instances. Here we test co-nomination by mapping one such instance: the idiosyncratic field of CERN-based heavy flavour physics (HFP). HFP is a 'hyper-authorship' field where papers conventionally list thousands of authors alphabetically, masking individual intellectual contributions. We also undertook an illustrative author co-citation analysis (ACA) mapping of 2310 HFP articles published 2013-18 and identified using a simple keyword query. Both maps were presented to two HFP scientists for commentary upon structure and validity. Our results suggest co-nomination allows us to access individual-level intellectual influence and discern the experimental and theoretical HFP branches. Co-nomination is powerful in uncovering current and emerging research specialisms in HFP that might remain opaque to other methods. ACA, however, better captures HFP's historical and intellectual foundations. We conclude by discussing possible future uses of co-nomination in science policy and research evaluation arrangements.

AB - This paper introduces the use of co-nomination as a method to map research fields by directly accessing their knowledge networks organised around exchange relationships of intellectual influence. Co-nomination is a reputation-based approach combining snowball sampling and social network analysis. It compliments established bibliometric mapping methods by addressing some of their typical shortcomings in specific instances. Here we test co-nomination by mapping one such instance: the idiosyncratic field of CERN-based heavy flavour physics (HFP). HFP is a 'hyper-authorship' field where papers conventionally list thousands of authors alphabetically, masking individual intellectual contributions. We also undertook an illustrative author co-citation analysis (ACA) mapping of 2310 HFP articles published 2013-18 and identified using a simple keyword query. Both maps were presented to two HFP scientists for commentary upon structure and validity. Our results suggest co-nomination allows us to access individual-level intellectual influence and discern the experimental and theoretical HFP branches. Co-nomination is powerful in uncovering current and emerging research specialisms in HFP that might remain opaque to other methods. ACA, however, better captures HFP's historical and intellectual foundations. We conclude by discussing possible future uses of co-nomination in science policy and research evaluation arrangements.

KW - Science mapping

KW - Social network analysis

KW - Co-nomination

KW - Research field's intellectual influence

KW - Heavy flavour physics

KW - Hyper-authorship

KW - MIXED METHODS

KW - COLLABORATION

KW - COCITATION

KW - SCIENCE

KW - COMMUNICATION

KW - COMMUNITIES

KW - NETWORKS

KW - MAP

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086654197&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11192-020-03538-x

DO - 10.1007/s11192-020-03538-x

M3 - Journal article

VL - 124

SP - 2229

EP - 2249

JO - Scientometrics

JF - Scientometrics

SN - 0138-9130

IS - 3

ER -