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Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research: The case of polymer chemsitry

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to show how co-word analysis techniques can be used to study interactions between academic and technological research. It is based upon a systematic content analysis of publications in the polymer science field over a period of 15 years. The results concern a.) the evolution of research in different subject areas and the patterns of their interaction; b.) a description of subject area “life cycles”; c.) an analysis of ”research trajectories” given factors of stability and change in a research network; d.) the need to use both science push and technology pull theories to explain the interaction dynamics of a research field. The co-word techniques developed in this paper should help to build a bridge between research in scientometrics and work underway to better understand the economics of innovation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris, 62 bd. St. Michel, 75006, Paris, (France)

    M. Callon, J. P. Courtial & F. Laville

Authors
  1. M. Callon
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  2. J. P. Courtial
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  3. F. Laville
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Callon, M., Courtial, J.P. & Laville, F. Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research: The case of polymer chemsitry. Scientometrics 22, 155–205 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02019280

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02019280

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