Loet Leydesdorff, The Challenge of Scientometrics: the development,
measurement, and self-organization of scientific communications (Leiden:
DSWO Press, Leiden University, 1995), 243 pages.
Crucial problems in qualitative and quantitative science studies, such as
the significance of a historical reconstruction and the prediction of
science indicators, are addressed by using a second-order mathematical
theory of communication as a single and encompassing framework. The study
provides elaborate applications of probabilistic entropy measures to policy
questions (e.g., the emergence of a European R&D system), to problems of
knowledge representations, and to the study of the sciences in terms of
"self-organizing" paradigms of scientific communication.
Dfl. 49.50
ISBN 90-6695-112-5.
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