“Critical Transitions” and “Avalanches” in Journal-Journal Citation Relations

Using the complete Journal Citation Reports (Science Citation Index, SCI, and Social Sciences Citation Index, SSCI) during the period 1994-2016 as data, we address the question of change and stability in the sciences at the level of the (n2) aggregated citation links between (n) journals. Information theory enables us to study longitudinal developments first at the level of cells and then to aggregate, since the Shannon-formulae are based on using Ss. Micro-developments in the data can thus be related to theorizing about the sciences in terms of distributed change (Price, 1976; cf. Kuhn, 1962).

本研究以1994至2016年间完整的期刊引证报告（涵盖科学引文索引（Science Citation Index, SCI）与社会科学引文索引（Social Sciences Citation Index, SSCI））作为数据集，旨在探讨n种期刊间n²个聚合引证链接层面的科学领域变迁与稳定性问题。借助信息论（Information theory）方法，我们可先从单元层面展开纵向演化分析，再进行聚合整合——这是由于香农公式（Shannon-formulae）的构建基于对熵（S）的运用。借此，数据中的微观演化可与基于分布式变迁的科学理论研究建立关联（Price, 1976；可比照Kuhn, 1962）。