Detecting the historical roots of research fields by reference publication year spectroscopy (RPYS)

• Published in: Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology Vol. 65; no. 4; pp. 751 - 764
• Main Authors: Marx, Werner, Bornmann, Lutz, Barth, Andreas, Leydesdorff, Loet
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2014; Wiley
• Subjects: bibliometrics; Bibliometrics. Scientometrics; Bibliometrics. Scientometrics. Evaluation; Citation analysis; Documents; Exact sciences and technology; Graphene; Historic; history; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Library and information science. General aspects; Origins; Photovoltaic cells; Reference materials; Roots; Sciences and techniques of general use; Solar cells; Spectroscopy; Subject fields; Frequency; Research field; Citation

We introduce the quantitative method named “Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy” (RPYS). With this method one can determine the historical roots of research fields and quantify their impact on current research. RPYS is based on the analysis of the frequency with which references are cited in the...