Research Areas and Stratification Processes in Science

Abstract

We present data for two research areas, delimited by co-citation analysis, to assess several hypotheses about the articulation of research area structure and stratification processes among scientists. Two main issues are examined. First, we contrast the social status of the members of the two areas with the general status levels shown by members of disciplines which encompass the two areas. This contrast is relevant to hypotheses about the social characteristics of central intellectual figures in research areas. Second, we examine the effect of a scientist's participation in the development of a research area on subsequent scientific performance in order to determine the extent to which such participation should be included in analyses of scientific productivity and status.