Informetrics and the study of science–society communications: a bibliometric scoping review

Abstract

Informetrics with its frameworks and methods has long been playing a prominent role in the study of science–society communications. The aim of the present work is an exploratory study of this domain of research, via a scoping review based on enhanced bibliometric methods. The leading research questions concern the cognitive structure of the subject, its position in the broader context of science communication studies and social studies of science, and the role and contributions of informetrics in advancing the field. To overcome the difficulties stemming from the complex definition of the subject, we use an indirect, link-based search strategy for database construction. Our methodological framework consists of a combination of bibliographic coupling (identifying main research streams), various representations of semantic networks (analyzing the cognitive organization of individual research streams), and the systematic synthesis of the results we call quasi content analysis. Beyond uncovering the role and context of informetrics in the study of science–society communications, our results contribute to the conceptual clarifications on such timely issues as the meaning of altmetrics or the notion of social impact in recent informetrics paradigms.