arXiv subjects

Loet Leydesdorff

Publications and source records attributed to Loet Leydesdorff.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Knowledge-generating Efficiency in Innovation Systems: The relation between structural and temporal effects

Using time series of US patents per million inhabitants, knowledge-generating cycles can be distinguished. These cycles partly coincide with Kondratieff long waves. The changes in the slopes between them indicate discontinuities in the knowledge-generating paradigms. The knowledge-generating paradigms can be modeled in terms of interacting dimensions (for example, in university-industry-government relations) that set limits to the maximal efficiency of innovation systems. The maximum values of the parameters in the model are of the same order as the regression coefficients of the empirical waves. The mechanism of the increase in the dimensionality is specified as self-organization which leads to the breaking of existing relations into the more diversified structure of a fractal-like network. This breaking can be modeled in analogy to 2D and 3D (Koch) snowflakes. The boost of knowledge generation leads to newly emerging technologies that can be expected to be more diversified and show shorter life cycles than before. Time spans of the knowledge-generating cycles can also be analyzed in terms of Fibonacci numbers. This perspective allows for forecasting expected dates of future possible paradigm changes. In terms of policy implications, this suggests a shift in focus from the manufacturing technologies to developing new organizational technologies and formats of human interactions

cs.CY↗

arXiv2015

Hyperincursive Cogitata and Incursive Cogitantes: Scholarly Discourse as a Strongly Anticipatory System

Strongly anticipatory systems-that is, systems which use models of themselves for their further development-and which additionally may be able to run hyperincursive routines-that is, develop only with reference to their future states-cannot exist in res extensa, but can only be envisaged in res cogitans. One needs incursive routines in cogitantes to instantiate these systems. Unlike historical systems (with recursion), these hyper-incursive routines generate redundancies by opening horizons of other possible states. Thus, intentional systems can enrich our perceptions of the cases that have happened to occur. The perspective of hindsight codified at the above-individual level enables us furthermore to intervene technologically. The theory and computation of anticipatory systems have made these loops between supra-individual hyper-incursion, individual incursion (in instantiation), and historical recursion accessible for modeling and empirical investigation.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

The Generation of Large Networks from Web-of-Science Data

During the 1990s, one of us developed a series of freeware routines (http://www.leydesdorff.net/indicators) that enable the user to organize downloads from the Web-of-Science (Thomson Reuters) into a relational database, and then to export matrices for further analysis in various formats (for example, for co-author analysis). The basic format of the matrices displays each document as a case in a row that can be attributed different variables in the columns. One limitation to this approach was hitherto that relational databases typically have an upper limit for the number of variables, such as 256 or 1024. In this brief communication, we report on a way to circumvent this limitation by using txt2Pajek.exe, available as freeware from http://www.pfeffer.at/txt2pajek/.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

Patents as Instruments for Exploring Innovation Dynamics: Geographic and Technological Perspectives on "Photovoltaic Cells"

The dynamics of innovation are nonlinear and complex: geographical, technological, and economic selection environments can be expected to interact. Can patents provide an analytical lens to this process in terms of different attributes such as inventor addresses, classification codes, backward and forward citations, etc.? Two recently developed patent maps with interactive overlay techniques--Google Maps and maps based on citation relations among International Patent Classifications (IPC)--are elaborated into dynamic versions that allow for online animations and comparisons by using split screens. Various forms of animation are explored. The recently developed Cooperative Patent Classifications (CPC) of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) provide new options for a precise delineation of samples in both USPTO data and the Worldwide Patent Statistics Database (PatStat) of EPO. Among the "technologies for the mitigation of climate change" (class Y02), we zoom in on nine material technologies for photovoltaic cells; and focus on one of them (CuInSe2) as a lead case. The longitudinal development of Rao-Stirling diversity in the IPC-based maps provides a heuristics for studying technological generations during the period under study (1975-2012). The sequencing of generations prevails in USPTO data more than in PatStat data because PatStat aggregates patent information from countries in different stages of technological development, whereas one can expect USPTO patents to be competitive at the technological edge.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2014

Synergy cycles in the Norwegian innovation system: The relation between synergy and cycle values

The knowledge base of an economy measured in terms of Triple Helix relations can be analyzed in terms of mutual information among geographical, sectorial, and size distributions of firms as dimensions of the probabilistic entropy. The resulting synergy values of a TH system provide static snapshots. In this study, we add the time dimension and analyze the synergy dynamics using the Norwegian innovation system as an example. The synergy among the three dimensions can be mapped as a set of partial time series and spectrally analyzed. The results suggest that the synergy at the level of both the country and its 19 counties shoe non-chaotic oscillatory behavior and resonates in a set of natural frequencies. That is, synergy surges and drops are non-random and can be analyzed and predicted. There is a proportional dependence between the amplitudes of oscillations and synergy values and an inverse proportional dependence between the oscillation frequencies' relative inputs and synergy values. This analysis of the data informs us that one can expect frequency-related synergy-volatility growth in relation to the synergy value and a shift in the synergy volatility towards the long-term fluctuations with the synergy growth.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2014

The Operationalization of "Fields" as WoS Subject Categories (WCs) in Evaluative Bibliometrics: The cases of "Library and Information Science" and "Science & Technology Studies"

Normalization of citation scores using reference sets based on Web-of-Science Subject Categories (WCs) has become an established ("best") practice in evaluative bibliometrics. For example, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings are, among other things, based on this operationalization. However, WCs were developed decades ago for the purpose of information retrieval and evolved incrementally with the database; the classification is machine-based and partially manually corrected. Using the WC "information science & library science" and the WCs attributed to journals in the field of "science and technology studies," we show that WCs do not provide sufficient analytical clarity to carry bibliometric normalization in evaluation practices because of "indexer effects." Can the compliance with "best practices" be replaced with an ambition to develop "best possible practices"? New research questions can then be envisaged.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

Matching MEDLINE/PubMed Data with Web of Science (WoS): A Routine in R language

We present a novel routine, namely medlineR, based on R-language, that enables the user to match data from MEDLINE/PubMed with records indexed in the ISI Web of Science (WoS) database. The matching allows exploiting the rich and controlled vocabulary of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) of MEDLINE/PubMed with additional fields of WoS. The integration provides data (e.g. citation data, list of cited reference, full list of the addresses of authors' host organisations, WoS subject categories) to perform a variety of scientometric analyses. This brief communication describes medlineR, the methodology on which it relies, and the steps the user should follow to perform the matching across the two databases. In order to specify the differences from Leydesdorff and Opthof (2013), we conclude the brief communication by testing the routine on the case of the "Burgada Syndrome".

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

Aggregated journal-journal citation relations in Scopus and Web-of-Science matched and compared in terms of networks, maps, and interactive overlays

We compare the network of aggregated journal-journal citation relations provided by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) 2012 of the Science and Social Science Citation Indexes (SCI and SSCI) with similar data based on Scopus 2012. First, global maps were developed for the two sets separately; sets of documents can then be compared using overlays to both maps. Using fuzzy-string matching and ISSN numbers, we were able to match 10,524 journal names between the two sets; that is, 96.4% of the 10,936 journals contained in JCR or 51.2% of the 20,554 journals covered by Scopus. Network analysis was then pursued on the set of journals shared between the two databases and the two sets of unique journals. Citations among the shared journals are more comprehensively covered in JCR than Scopus, so the network in JCR is denser and more connected than in Scopus. The ranking of shared journals in terms of indegree (that is, numbers of citing journals) or total citations is similar in both databases overall (Spearman's \r{ho} > 0.97), but some individual journals rank very differently. Journals that are unique to Scopus seem to be less important--they are citing shared journals rather than being cited by them--but the humanities are covered better in Scopus than in JCR.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

The European Union, China, and the United States in the Top-1% and Top-10% Layers of Most-Frequently-Cited Publications: Competition and Collaborations

The percentages of shares of world publications of the European Union and its member states, China, and the United States have been represented differently as a result of using different databases. An analytical variant of the Web-of-Science (of Thomson Reuters) enables us to study the dynamics in the world publication system in terms of the field-normalized top-1% and top-10% most-frequently-cited publications. Comparing the EU28, USA, and China at the global level shows a top-level dynamics that is different from the analysis in terms of shares of publications: the United States remains far more productive in the top-1% of all papers; China drops out of the competition for elite status; and the EU28 increased its share among the top-cited papers from 2000-2010. Some of the EU28 member states overtook the U.S. during this decade, but a clear divide remains between EU15 (Western Europe) and the Accession Countries. Network analysis shows that internationally co-authored top-1% publications perform far above expectation and also above top-10% ones. In 2005, China was embedded in this top-layer of internationally co-authored publications. These publications often involve more than a single European nation.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

BRICS countries and scientific excellence: A bibliometric analysis of most frequently-cited papers

The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and South Africa) are noted for their increasing participation in science and technology. The governments of these countries have been boosting their investments in research and development to become part of the group of nations doing research at a world-class level. This study investigates the development of the BRICS countries in the domain of top-cited papers (top 10% and 1% most frequently cited papers) between 1990 and 2010. To assess the extent to which these countries have become important players on the top level, we compare the BRICS countries with the top-performing countries worldwide. As the analyses of the (annual) growth rates show, with the exception of Russia, the BRICS countries have increased their output in terms of most frequently-cited papers at a higher rate than the top-cited countries worldwide. In a further step of analysis for this study, we generate co-authorship networks among authors of highly cited papers for four time points to view changes in BRICS participation (1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010). Here, the results show that all BRICS countries succeeded in becoming part of this network, whereby the Chinese collaboration activities focus on the USA.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

Measuring Triple-Helix Synergy in the Russian Innovation Systems at Regional, Provincial, and National Levels

We measure synergy for the Russian national, provincial, and regional innovation systems as reduction of uncertainty using mutual information among the three distributions of firm sizes, technological knowledge-bases of firms, and geographical locations. Half a million data at firm level in 2011 were obtained from the Orbis database of Bureau Van Dijk. The firm level data were aggregated at the levels of eight Federal Districts, the regional level of 83 Federal Subjects, and the single level of the Russian Federation. Not surprisingly, the knowledge base of the economy is concentrated in the Moscow region (22.8%); St. Petersburg follows with 4.0%. Only 0.4% of the firms are classified as high-tech, and 2.7% as medium-tech manufacturing (NACE, Rev. 2). Except in Moscow itself, high-tech manufacturing does not add synergy to any other unit at any of the various levels of geographical granularity; instead it disturbs regional coordination even in the region surrounding Moscow ("Moscow Region"). In the case of medium-tech manufacturing, there is also synergy in St. Petersburg. Knowledge-intensive services (KIS; including laboratories) contribute 12.8% to the economy in terms of establishments and contribute to the synergy in all Federal Districts (except the North-Caucasian Federal District), but only in 30 of the 83 Federal Subjects. The synergy in KIS is concentrated in centers of administration. Unlike Western European countries, the knowledge-intensive services (which are often state-affiliated) thus provide backbone to an emerging knowledge-based economy at the level of Federal Districts, but the economy is otherwise not knowledge-based (except for the Moscow region).

cs.CY↗

arXiv2014

Redundancy Generation in University-Industry-Government Relations: The Triple Helix Modeled, Measured, and Simulated

A Triple Helix (TH) of bi- and trilateral relations among universities, industries, and governments can be considered as an ecosystem in which uncertainty can be reduced auto-catalytically. The correlations among the distributions of relations span a vector space in which two vectors (P and Q) represent "sending" and "receiving," respectively. These vectors can also be understood in terms of the generation versus reduction of uncertainty in the communication field that results from interactions among the three (bi-lateral) communication channels. We specify a set of Lotka-Volterra equations between the vectors that can be solved. Redundancy generation can then be simulated and the results can be decomposed in terms of the TH components. Among other things, we show that the strength and frequency of the relations are independent parameters. Different components in terms of frequencies in triple-helix systems can also be distinguished and interpreted using Fourier analysis of the empirical time-series. The case of co-authorship relations in Japan is analyzed as an empirical example; but "triple contingencies" in an ecosystem of relations can also be considered more generally as a model for redundancy generation by providing meaning to the (Shannon-type) information in inter-human communications.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2014

Journal Maps, Interactive Overlays, and the Measurement of Interdisciplinarity on the Basis of Scopus Data (1996-2012)

Using Scopus data, we construct a global map of science based on aggregated journal-journal citations from 1996-2012 (N of journals = 20,554). This base map enables users to overlay downloads from Scopus interactively. Using a single year (e.g., 2012), results can be compared with mappings based on the Journal Citation Reports at the Web-of-Science (N = 10,936). The Scopus maps are more detailed at both the local and global levels because of their greater coverage, including, for example, the arts and humanities. The base maps can be interactively overlaid with journal distributions in sets downloaded from Scopus, for example, for the purpose of portfolio analysis. Rao-Stirling diversity can be used as a measure of interdisciplinarity in the sets under study. Maps at the global and the local level, however, can be very different because of the different levels of aggregation involved. Two journals, for example, can both belong to the humanities in the global map, but participate in different specialty structures locally. The base map and interactive tools are available online (with instructions) at http://www.leydesdorff.net/scopus_ovl.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2014

Can Synergy in Triple-Helix Relations be Quantified? A Review of the Development of the Triple-Helix Indicator

Triple-Helix arrangements of bi- and trilateral relations can be considered as adaptive eco-systems. During the last decade, we have further developed a Triple-Helix indicator of synergy as reduction of uncertainty in niches that can be shaped among three or more distributions. Reduction of uncertainty can be generated in correlations among distributions of relations, but this (next-order) effect can be counterbalanced by uncertainty generated in the relations. We first explain the indicator, and then review possible results when this indicator is applied to (i) co-author networks of academic, industrial, and governmental authors and (ii) synergies in the distributions of firms over geographical addresses, technological classes, and industrial-size classes for a number of nations. Co-variation is then considered as a measure of relationship. The balance between globalizing and localizing dynamics can be quantified. Too much synergy locally can also be considered as lock-in. Tendencies are different for the globalizing knowledge dynamics versus locally retaining wealth from knowledge in industrial innovations.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2013

How have the Eastern European countries of the former Warsaw Pact developed since 1990? A bibliometric study

Did the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 influence the scientific performance of the researchers in Eastern European countries? Did this historical event affect international collaboration by researchers from the Eastern European countries with those of Western countries? Did it also change international collaboration among researchers from the Eastern European countries? Trying to answer these questions, this study aims to shed light on international collaboration by researchers from the Eastern European countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia). The number of publications and normalized citation impact values are compared for these countries based on InCites (Thomson Reuters), from 1981 up to 2011. The international collaboration by researchers affiliated to institutions in Eastern European countries at the time points of 1990, 2000 and 2011 was studied with the help of Pajek and VOSviewer software, based on data from the Science Citation Index (Thomson Reuters). Our results show that the breakdown of the communist regime did not lead, on average, to a huge improvement in the publication performance of the Eastern European countries and that the increase in international co-authorship relations by the researchers affiliated to institutions in these countries was smaller than expected. Most of the Eastern European countries are still subject to changes and are still awaiting their boost in scientific development.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2013

Referenced Publication Years Spectroscopy applied to iMetrics: Scientometrics, Journal of Informetrics, and a relevant subset of JASIST

We have developed a (freeware) routine for "referenced publication years spectroscopy" (RPYS) and apply this method to the historiography of "iMetrics," that is, the junction of the journals Scientometrics, Informetrics, and the relevant subset of JASIST (approx. 20%) that shapes the intellectual space for the development of information metrics (bibliometrics, scientometrics, informetrics, and webometrics). The application to information metrics (our own field of research) provides us with the opportunity to validate this methodology, and to add a reflection about using citations for the historical reconstruction. The results show that the field is rooted in individual contributions of the 1920s-1950s (e.g., Alfred J. Lotka), and was then shaped intellectually in the early 1960s by a confluence of the history of science (Derek de Solla Price), documentation (e.g., Michael M. Kessler's "bibliographic coupling"), and "citation indexing" (Eugene Garfield). Institutional development at the interfaces between science studies and information science has been reinforced by the new journal Informetrics since 2007. In a concluding reflection, we return to the question of how the historiography of science using algorithmic means--in terms of citation practices--can be different from an intellectual history of the field based, for example, on reading source materials.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2013

How to improve the prediction based on citation impact percentiles for years shortly after the publication date?

The findings of Bornmann, Leydesdorff, and Wang (in press) revealed that the consideration of journal impact improves the prediction of long-term citation impact. This paper further explores the possibility of improving citation impact measurements on the base of a short citation window by the consideration of journal impact and other variables, such as the number of authors, the number of cited references, and the number of pages. The dataset contains 475,391 journal papers published in 1980 and indexed in Web of Science (WoS, Thomson Reuters), and all annual citation counts (from 1980 to 2010) for these papers. As an indicator of citation impact, we used percentiles of citations calculated using the approach of Hazen (1914). Our results show that citation impact measurement can really be improved: If factors generally influencing citation impact are considered in the statistical analysis, the explained variance in the long-term citation impact can be much increased. However, this increase is only visible when using the years shortly after publication but not when using later years.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2013

Measuring the Knowledge-Based Economy of China in terms of Synergy among Technological, Organizational, and Geographic Attributes of Firms

Using the possible synergy among geographic, size, and technological distributions of firms in the Orbis database, we find the greatest reduction of uncertainty at the level of the 31 provinces of China, and an additional 18.0% at the national level. Some of the coastal provinces stand out as expected, but the metropolitan areas of Beijing and Shanghai are (with Tianjan and Chonqing) most pronounced at the next-lower administrative level of (339) prefectures, since these four metropoles are administratively defined at both levels. Focusing on high- and medium-tech manufacturing, a shift toward Beijing and Shanghai is indicated, and the synergy is on average enhanced (as expected; but not for all provinces). Unfortunately, the Orbis data is incomplete since it was collected for commercial and not for administrative or governmental purposes. However, we show a methodology that can be used by others who may have access to higher-quality statistical data for the measurement.

cs.CY↗