Mapping the temporal evolution of scientific community structures

Abstract

We present results from tracking the temporal evolution of community structures within a research specialty. This extends our previous work in which we generated static community maps that combine co-author networks and direct citation networks derived from 20-years of publications in the research specialty. Here, we explore how the temporal evolution of these maps can be used to provide insights into the historical evolution of a field as well as extract more accurate snapshots of the community structures at a given point in time. Such time resolved mappings are an important component in our mixed method approach that integrates network analysis with ethnographic field studies to investigate field-specific communication and collaboration behaviors in scientific communities (Velden & Lagoze 2013). Evaluating these maps in qualitative interviews with field experts will be the next step in our research.