STSM Applicant: Ms Valeria Aman, DZHW, Berlin (DE), aman@forschungsinfo.de
STSM Topic: Expanding the use of science maps in sociological analyses by positioning actors in knowledge
landscapes
Host: Ismael Rafols, Instituto de Gestión de la Innovación y del Conocimiento, Valencia (ES)

Visualisations of thematic structures in science are increasingly used in sociological investigations. Applications include the elicitation of interview responses on scientific topics and the reconstruction of an interviewees cognitive career. In both cases, maps also support the data analysis by providing the analyst with an opportunity to triangulate or to interrogate interview responses on thematic relationships.
The aim of the STSM is to explore further the potential of maps in sociological investigations. The above-described uses are essentially micro-sociological in that they focus on the interviewee’ perception of thematic structures. The STSM shall contribute to the exploration of the use of maps for macro-micro links. Is it possible to use maps for positioning individuals in knowledge landscapes and studying their interactions with these landscapes? This would require collecting and suitably processing information that links individuals to structural properties of the maps (e.g. keywords or publications used to build maps).
Within the STSM at INGENIO I would like to present my PhD project that deals with the identification of knowledge trajectories of postdocs. The effect of knowledge flows on performance is a research field addressed at INGENIO. My aim is to discuss with experts at INGENIO (Carolina Cañibano Sanchez, Richard Woolley, and others) how a bibliometric method to track knowledge transfer and imprinting effects of research groups on individual researchers can be developed. Since Ismael Rafols is an expert on maps, he can introduce me to maps of science that I could use in the analysis of knowledge trajectories.

This STSM is coordinated with the STSM of Jochen Gläser at INGENIO, in the same period.