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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme
SOE 4: Focus Session: Science of Science
SOE 4.1: Invited Talk
Monday, March 22, 2010, 13:30–14:00, H44
Following the actors: individual and collective behavior in epistemic landscapes — •Andrea Scharnhorst — The Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Cruquiusweg 31, 1019AT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Models of science can take very different forms from conceptual models based on historical and ethnographic observations to mathematical descriptions of measurable phenomena. In these models, scholars and science itself become 'research objects'. [1]
All decades have seen their 'models of science'. At the interface between mathematics, physics and a "science of science" we see traces of stochastic models, epidemic models, system dynamics models and complex network models applied to scholarly activity.
Referring to more recent encounters between information science and complexity research this paper present a specific model of (re)-searchers in "epistemic landscapes" based on insights from evolutionary theories.
Departing from this specific model we show how models can be linked to data gathering, to qualitative observations, and to new ways of visualization beyond the narrow cycle of validation and prediction.
[1] Boerner, Katy, and Andrea Scharnhorst. 2009. Editorial: Visual conceptualizations and models of science. Journal of Informetrics: 'Science of Science: Conceptualizations and Models of Science' (special issue) 3 (3): 161-172.