COSIT at Twenty: Measuring Research Trends and Interdisciplinarity (original) (raw)

Geographic Information Science as a Common Cause for Interdisciplinary Research

Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2012

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) seeks to understand the nature of geographic phenomena and geospatial information. It provides theoretical foundations for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the rationale for research and development in GIS and their applications. In this article, we analyse the role of GIScience as a common denominator among and between various disciplines, acting as a facilitator for interdisciplinary research. Starting from the development of a coordinated and structured doctoral programme, ten senior university faculty members from different disciplines examine the commonalities of spatial 1 concepts in their respective fields in three interdisciplinary research clusters. Since the educational rationale was published recently, we focus on the role of GIScience in building an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research alliance 1 Because of limited space we focus in this paper on the spatial domain and will only briefly reflect the spatio-temporal complexity 412 T. Blaschke, et al. and conclude that the university-wide visibility has increased and opens new changes for another 'spatial turn'.

Spatial scientometrics: Towards a cumulative research program

Journal of Informetrics, 2009

We propose a research program to analyse spatial aspects of the science system. First, we provide a review of scientometric studies that already explicitly take the spatial dimension into account. The review includes studies on (i) the spatial distribution of research and citations, (ii) the existence of spatial biases in collaboration, citations and mobility, and (iii) the citation impact of national versus international collaborations. Then, we address a number of methodological issues in dealing with space in scientometrics. Finally, to integrate spatial and non-spatial approaches, we propose an analytical framework based on the concept of proximity. A proximity approach allows for combining hypotheses from different theoretical perspectives into a single framework.

Core Concepts of Spatial Information: A First Selection

2011

Abstract The work reported here explores the idea of identifying a small set of core concepts of spatial information. These concepts are chosen such that they are communicable to, and applicable by, scientists who are not specialists of spatial information. They help pose and answer questions about spatio-temporal patterns in domains that are not primarily spatial, such as biology, economics, or linguistics.

Use and Value of Geographic Information: Initiative 4 Specialist Meeting Summary Report and Proceedings

One of the greatest challenges, as previously noted, was to identify a group of experts to participate in the Specialist Meeting. On the one hand, we recognized a core of individuals larger than our accommodations and the format of the meeting would allow. On the other, we faced the difficulty of meshing the schedules of busy people with the schedule for the specialist meeting. The final list of participants reflects compromises on both counts. The list of specialists follows, in alphabetical order. Initiative 4, which was taken directly from the NCGIA Research Agenda. We asked the Meeting participants to consider these objectives, and to respond to them in the form of a pre-conference position paper, in which they would present their own ideas on the use and value of geographic information. Both the Initiative 4 objectives and the participants' pre-conference position papers follow.