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A diachronic study of historiography
A diachronic study of historiography
The humanities are often characterized by sociologists as having a low mutual dependence among scholars and high task uncertainty. According to Fuchs' theory of scientific change, this leads over time to intellectual and social fragmentation, as new scholarship accumulates in the absence of shared unifying theories. We consider here a set of specialisms in the discipline of history and measure the connectivity properties of their bibliographic coupling networks over time, in order to assess whether fragmentation is indeed occurring. We construct networks using both reference overlap and textual similarity. It is shown that the connectivity of reference overlap networks is gradually and steadily declining over time, whilst that of textual similarity networks is stable. Author bibliographic coupling networks also show signs of a decline in connectivity, in the absence of an increasing propensity for collaborations. We speculate that, despite the gradual weakening of ties among historians as mapped by references, new scholarship might be continually integrated through shared vocabularies and narratives. This would support our belief that citations are but one kind of bibliometric data to consider --- perhaps even of secondary importance --- when studying the humanities, while text should play a more prominent role.
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
Microsoft Academic Graph classification: Network connectivity Sociology Social fragmentation Scholarship Narrative Historiography Bibliographic coupling Market fragmentation Epistemology Mutual dependence
Digital Libraries (cs.DL), FOS: Computer and information sciences, Humanities, History, Intellectual organization, Bibliographic coupling, Network connectivity, Text similarity, Library and Information Sciences, Computer Science Applications, General Social Sciences, Computer Science - Digital Libraries
Digital Libraries (cs.DL), FOS: Computer and information sciences, Humanities, History, Intellectual organization, Bibliographic coupling, Network connectivity, Text similarity, Library and Information Sciences, Computer Science Applications, General Social Sciences, Computer Science - Digital Libraries
Microsoft Academic Graph classification: Network connectivity Sociology Social fragmentation Scholarship Narrative Historiography Bibliographic coupling Market fragmentation Epistemology Mutual dependence
4215
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citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).1 popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.Average influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).Average impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.Average citations This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).1 popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.Average influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).Average impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.Average
Citations provided by BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- 159961
- Projects | Project funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- 168489
- Careers | Fellowships | Doc.Mobility
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland
The humanities are often characterized by sociologists as having a low mutual dependence among scholars and high task uncertainty. According to Fuchs' theory of scientific change, this leads over time to intellectual and social fragmentation, as new scholarship accumulates in the absence of shared unifying theories. We consider here a set of specialisms in the discipline of history and measure the connectivity properties of their bibliographic coupling networks over time, in order to assess whether fragmentation is indeed occurring. We construct networks using both reference overlap and textual similarity. It is shown that the connectivity of reference overlap networks is gradually and steadily declining over time, whilst that of textual similarity networks is stable. Author bibliographic coupling networks also show signs of a decline in connectivity, in the absence of an increasing propensity for collaborations. We speculate that, despite the gradual weakening of ties among historians as mapped by references, new scholarship might be continually integrated through shared vocabularies and narratives. This would support our belief that citations are but one kind of bibliometric data to consider --- perhaps even of secondary importance --- when studying the humanities, while text should play a more prominent role.