Discovery of patterns of scientific and technological development and knowledge transfer

Abstract

This paper addresses a bibliometric methodology to discover the structure of the scientific ‘landscape’ in order to gain detailed insight into the development of R&D fields, their interaction, and the transfer of knowledge between them. This methodology is appropriate to visualize the position of R&D activities in relation to interdisciplinary R&D developments, and particularly in relation to socio-economic problems. Furthermore, it allows the identification of the major actors. It even provides the possibility of foresight. We describe a first approach to apply bibliometric mapping as an instrument to investigate characteristics of knowledge transfer.