Mapping the Geography of Science: Distribution Patterns and Networks of Relations among Cities and Institutes

TL;DR

This paper explores methods for visualizing and analyzing the geographic distribution and networks of scientific collaborations among cities and institutions using various mapping and network tools.

Contribution

It provides a comparative discussion of visualization options and offers freeware solutions to connect bibliometric databases with mapping tools.

Findings

Global city-level maps can be reliably created from address data.

Institutional name unification remains a challenge in bibliometric databases.

Pajek enables combined visualization and statistical analysis.

Abstract

Using Google Earth, Google Maps and/or network visualization programs such as Pajek, one can overlay the network of relations among addresses in scientific publications on the geographic map. We discuss the pros en cons of the various options, and provide software (freeware) for bridging existing gaps between the Science Citation Indices and Scopus, on the one side, and these various visualization tools, on the other. At the level of city names, the global map can be drawn reliably on the basis of the available address information. At the level of the names of organizations and institutes, there are problems of unification both in the ISI-databases and Scopus. Pajek enables us to combine the visualization with statistical analysis, whereas the Google Maps and its derivates provide superior tools at the Internet.