Abstract
The chapter aims at drawing attention to the possibilities that geospatial technologies can bring to science mapping. In what follows, the chapter briefly distinguishes the notion of mapping between the Geospatial Information Science (GIScience) and Librarianship and Information Science (LIS). Afterwards, an overview about recent initiatives and research work relative to (geospatial) mapping of science is presented. Based on these examples, opportunities and challenges of applying geospatial technology to science mapping are discussed. Finally, based on relevant while evolving geospatial technologies, next steps for increasing up the influence of geospatial technology in science mapping are pointed out.
TopIntroduction
Sharing and making research data publicly available are increasingly getting attention to academia and research policy agenda. According to a 2014 European Commission guidelines for the re-use of datasets (OJEU C/240-1), geospatial data is of most importance. It raises an invaluable opportunity for libraries to play a dominant role in the not-so-distant-future for managing large collections of open (geospatial) research data. However, the geospatial dimension goes beyond data itself and embraces a wide range of spatial analysis and techniques (Smith et al., 2015). In particular, mapping and visualization techniques of geospatial data may provide endless opportunities to libraries and information science researchers in the sense of exploring the most of large open research datasets from a new perspective. With exceptions, librarians and information science professionals miss an overall perception of the possibilities that geospatial data and tools may bring them to geographically explore, analyze, and mapping research datasets and, especially, science related data. The question we pose in this chapter is whether or not geospatial technologies and mapping techniques have a role in the know–how of librarians and how these technologies and techniques may influence science mapping. Furthermore the chapter aims at drawing attention to the opportunities that the geospatial dimension applied to science related data can bring to the field of science mapping.
In what follows, the chapter briefly distinguishes the notion of mapping between the Geospatial Information Science (GIScience) and Librarianship and Information Science (LIS). Afterwards, an overview about recent initiatives and research work relative to (geospatial) mapping of science is presented. Based on these examples, opportunities and challenges of applying geospatial technology to science mapping are discussed. Finally, based on relevant while evolving geospatial technologies, next steps for increasing up the influence of geospatial technology in science mapping are pointed out.
Key Terms in this Chapter
GIScience: Geographic information science (GIScience) is the scientific discipline that studies data structures and computational techniques to capture, represent, process, and analyze geographic information. Goodchild (2010) summarized its core interests, including spatial analysis, visualization, and the representation of uncertainty (source. Geographical Information Systems).
Applied Cybermetrics: Applied cybermetrics refers to the application of indicators (modelled by descriptive cybermetrics) combined with data analysis and visualization techniques, and altogether applied to concrete scenarios, use cases, and application domains. Further information is available in Orduña-Malea and Aguilló (2014) .
Cartograms: A cartogram is a map in which some thematic mapping variable – such as travel time, population, or socio-economic variables– is substituted for land area or distance. The geometry or space of the map is distorted in order to convey the information of this alternate variable (source: Cartogram, 2016 AU56: The in-text citation "Cartogram, 2016" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Geospatial Mapping: Geospatial mapping is a type of spatial analysis techniques that typically employs software capable of rendering maps processing spatial data, and applying analytical methods to terrestrial or geographic datasets, including the use of geographic information systems.
Scientometric: Scientometrics is the study of measuring and analyzing science, technology and innovation. Major research issues include the measurement of impact, reference sets of articles to investigate the impact of journals and institutes, understanding of scientific citations, mapping scientific fields and the production of indicators for use in policy and management contexts (source. Scientometrics).
Choropleth Maps: A choropleth map is a thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income. The choropleth map provides an easy way to visualize how a measurement varies across a geographic area or it shows the level of variability within a region (source: Chloropleth Map, 2016 ).
Spatial Analysis: Spatial analysis or geospatial analysis includes approaches to applying statistical analysis and other analytic techniques to data which has a geographical or spatial aspect, most notably in the analysis of entities using their topological, geometric, or geographic properties (source: Spatial Analysis, 2016 AU57: The in-text citation "Spatial Analysis, 2016" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).