21st Century Science Initiative Grant: Studying Complex Systems

This project will develop, implement, and validate dynamic science indicators to study and assess the emergence and development of scientific disciplines. Among others, the dynamic indicators will aim to capture the

• State of development (birth, maturation, dead),
• Trajectory (increasing, constant, declining) and speed of change,
• (Network) context and major knowledge import/export and derived degree of interdisciplinarity,
• Major experts, institutions, nations, papers, and journals,
• Dynamic aspects such as bursts of activity, impact of major external events such as funding or technological advances on research output

of a scientific discipline. There is very little work on how to best communicate dynamic indicators. Hence, we propose to develop a visual language that visually communicates dynamic science indicators. Validation will be performed using diverse scholarly datasets covering scientific disciplines that are in different stages of development, have different trajectories, network contexts, and dynamics. The resulting dynamic science indicators are most likely applicable to other scholarly units such as experts, institutions, nations, papers, or journals.