Mapping scientific literature. Structuring scientific communities through scientometrics

A sociologically integrated approach suggesting an interpretation of bibliometric indicators and maps is developed in this work. The programmatic element of the thesis is the integration of the constructivist perspective relating to the re-production of scientific community with the metric program in Bibliometrics. The accomplishment of the main purposes introduced above is realised through the following goals, which can be listed according to the level of generality. First of all, this work aims to demonstrate the potentialities of a proposal in the field of citation theory which encompasses different and divergent perspectives as it is based on the integration of structural-functionalist and constructivist approaches. More specifically, this proposal is applied to the field of Scientometrics, where the lack of a theoretical frame for interpreting bibliometric indicators as well as bibliometric maps constitutes a real problem as we are witnessing the affirmation of what can be called the “metric era”: as a matter of fact, like it or not, bibliometric measures and analyses are more and more important for scientists’ career. The purpose of providing a description of the intellectual and cognitive structure of the scientific field of Italian Sociology allows us, at the same time, to test the reliability of those bibliometric techniques employed in the empirical work here presented. In particular, we are testing the effectiveness of Bibliometrics in mapping scientific literature, as well as the effectiveness of the normative approach in describing citers’ behaviour with reference to high citation counts.