Proper field delineation plays an important role in scientometric studies, although it is a tough task. Based on an emerging and interdisciplinary field nanoscience and nanotechnology– this paper highlights the problem of field delineation. First we review the related literature. Then, three different approaches to delineate a field of knowledge were applied at three different levels of aggregation: subject category, publication level, and journal level. Expert opinion interviews served to assess the data, and precision and recall of each approach were calculated for comparison. Our findings confirm that field delineation is a complicated issue at both the quantitative and the qualitative level, even when experts validate results.

This study was funded by the Ph.D. International Mobility Programme of the University of Granada and by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain through the State Programme of Research, Development, and Innovation oriented to the Challenges of Society [NANOMETRICS, CSO2014-57770-R].

Peer reviewed