Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany.
University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
PLoS One. 2020 Feb 6;15(2):e0228613. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228613. eCollection 2020.
Scientific agenda setting is critical at all levels of research, but can be strongly influenced by structural path dependencies of the science system itself. In this article we examine how knowledge production is shaped by interconnected path dependencies using the field of tropical marine sciences as a global case study. We use scientometric analysis methods on an original data set of 1328 peer-reviewed journal publications to examine publication trends including a co-authorship network analysis, links between author origin and research locations as well as a quantitative analysis of terminology use over space (i.e., region) and time. Scientometric findings are analytically discussed through a conceptual framework premised on theories of path dependency. Findings and critical analysis highlight how tropical marine science provides a prominent global example of how North American, European and Australian science programs predominantly shape knowledge production of the global science system, generating critical reflection on the path dependencies these create on current and likely future knowledge production and science agendas. Similar dependencies face other fields of science, and thus this study provides broadly relevant quantitative observational empirical findings supplemented with a critical social science analysis of how a transcultural Science and Technology Studies lens is useful for unpacking the webs of path dependencies driving, inhibiting and/ or shaping global knowledge production, placing meaning and context over observed empirical trends.
科学议程的设定在研究的各个层面都至关重要，但它可能会受到科学系统自身结构路径依赖的强烈影响。本文以热带海洋科学领域为例，研究了知识生产是如何受到相互关联的路径依赖影响的。我们使用科学计量分析方法对一个由 1328 篇同行评议期刊论文组成的原始数据集进行了分析，以考察包括合著网络分析、作者原籍国与研究地点之间的联系以及术语在空间（即区域）和时间上的使用情况等出版趋势。通过基于路径依赖理论的概念框架对科学计量学的发现进行了分析讨论。研究结果和批判性分析强调了热带海洋科学如何为北美的、欧洲的和澳大利亚的科学计划如何主要塑造全球科学系统的知识生产提供了一个突出的全球范例，引发了对这些计划所产生的当前和未来知识生产和科学议程的路径依赖的批判性思考。其他科学领域也面临着类似的依赖性，因此，本研究提供了广泛相关的定量观测经验发现，并对如何利用跨文化科学技术研究视角来剖析推动、抑制和/或塑造全球知识生产的路径依赖网络进行了批判性分析，从而为观察到的经验趋势赋予了意义和背景。
