The Structure and Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge - Mapping Scientific Frontiers: The Quest for Knowledge Visualization - page 174

Fig. 5.6 A global map of science based on document co-citation patterns in 1996, showing
a linked structure of nested clusters of documents in various disciplines and research areas
(Reproduced from Garfield 1998 )

5.3.1.2 Narratives of Specialties

Creating a science map is the first step towards exploring and understanding
scientific frontiers. Science maps should guide us from one topic or specialty to
related topics or specialties. Once we have a global map in our hands, the next
logical step is to find out how we can make a journey from one place to another
based on the information provided by the map. Small introduced the concept of
passage through science . Passages are chains of articles in scientific literature.
Chains running across the literature of different disciplines are likely to carry a
method established in one discipline into another. Such chains are vehicles for
cross-disciplinary fertilization . Traditionally, a cross-disciplinary journey would
require scientists to make a variety of connections, translations, and adaptations.
Small demonstrated his powerful algorithms by blazing a magnificent trail of
more than 300 articles across the literatures of different scientific disciplines.
This trailblazing mechanism development has brought Bush's ( 1945 ) concept of
information trailblazing to life.