Maps of Science: Forecasting Large Trends in Science

Dr. Richard Klavans is President of SciTech Strategies, Inc., and Dr. Kevin W. Boyack works in the Computation, Computers, and Mathematics Center at Sandia National Laboratories. They are interested in the mapping of science as a platform for planning, evaluation, and education at national, corporate, and personal levels.

Description of Unique Features: A forecast of how the structure of science may change in the near future was generated by evaluating the change in the connectedness of various regions of the map over time. We find that the structure of science is very likely to change in the future. These maps tell this story.

Visual Perception or Design Principles Applied: Groups of journals characterizing the disciplines on the map were defined using a metric based on a combination of the bibliographic coupling of references and keyword vectors. A three-dimensional layout of the disciplines (groups of journals) places those disciplines on a sphere, which is then unfolded using a mercator projection to give a two-dimensional version of the map.

Data Used: This most recent map of science is based on the largest set of scientific literature yet mapped: 7.2 million papers and over 16,000 separate journals, proceedings, and series from a five year period, 2001-2005.

Klavans, Richard, Kevin W. Boyack. 2007. Maps of Science: Forecasting Large Trends in Science. Berwyn, PA and Albuquerque, NM. Courtesy of Richard Klavans, SciTech Strategies, Inc. In Katy Börner & Julie M. Davis (Eds.), 3rd Iteration (2007): The Power of Forecasts, Places and Spaces: Mapping Science http://scimaps.org (accessed on 05/04/2009).