Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations
Scholarly affinities are one of the most fundamental hidden dynamics that drive scientific development. Some affinities are actual, and consequently can be measured through classical academic metrics such as co-authoring. Other affinities are potential, and therefore do not leave visible traces in i...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-02-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frma.2018.00004/full |
| _version_ | 1819200017796169728 |
|---|---|
| author | Dario Rodighiero Frédéric Kaplan Boris Beaude |
| author_facet | Dario Rodighiero Frédéric Kaplan Boris Beaude |
| author_sort | Dario Rodighiero |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Scholarly affinities are one of the most fundamental hidden dynamics that drive scientific development. Some affinities are actual, and consequently can be measured through classical academic metrics such as co-authoring. Other affinities are potential, and therefore do not leave visible traces in information systems; for instance, some peers may share interests without actually knowing it. This article illustrates the development of a map of affinities for academic collectives, designed to be relevant to three audiences: the management, the scholars themselves, and the external public. Our case study involves the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of EPFL, hereinafter ENAC. The school consists of around 1,000 scholars, 70 laboratories, and 3 institutes. The actual affinities are modeled using the data available from the information systems reporting publications, teaching, and advising scholars, whereas the potential affinities are addressed through text mining of the publications. The major challenge for designing such a map is to represent the multi-dimensionality and multi-scale nature of the information. The affinities are not limited to the computation of heterogeneous sources of information; they also apply at different scales. The map, thus, shows local affinities inside a given laboratory, as well as global affinities among laboratories. This article presents a graphical grammar to represent affinities. Its effectiveness is illustrated by two actualizations of the design proposal: an interactive online system in which the map can be parameterized, and a large-scale carpet of 250 square meters. In both cases, we discuss how the materiality influences the representation of data, in particular the way key questions could be appropriately addressed considering the three target audiences: the insights gained by the management and their consequences in terms of governance, the understanding of the scholars’ own positioning in the academic group in order to foster opportunities for new collaborations and, eventually, the interpretation of the structure from a general public to evaluate the relevance of the tool for external communication. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T03:25:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-00ab7abea8b74c53931f2e1743aec0bf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2504-0537 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T03:25:33Z |
| publishDate | 2018-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics |
| spelling | doaj.art-00ab7abea8b74c53931f2e1743aec0bf2022-12-21T18:01:52ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics2504-05372018-02-01310.3389/frma.2018.00004307641Mapping Affinities in Academic OrganizationsDario Rodighiero0Frédéric Kaplan1Boris Beaude2Digital Humanities Laboratory (DHLAB), College of Humanities, Digital Humanities Institute, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, SwitzerlandDigital Humanities Laboratory (DHLAB), College of Humanities, Digital Humanities Institute, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, SwitzerlandSciences and Technologies Studies Laboratory (STSLAB), Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, SwitzerlandScholarly affinities are one of the most fundamental hidden dynamics that drive scientific development. Some affinities are actual, and consequently can be measured through classical academic metrics such as co-authoring. Other affinities are potential, and therefore do not leave visible traces in information systems; for instance, some peers may share interests without actually knowing it. This article illustrates the development of a map of affinities for academic collectives, designed to be relevant to three audiences: the management, the scholars themselves, and the external public. Our case study involves the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of EPFL, hereinafter ENAC. The school consists of around 1,000 scholars, 70 laboratories, and 3 institutes. The actual affinities are modeled using the data available from the information systems reporting publications, teaching, and advising scholars, whereas the potential affinities are addressed through text mining of the publications. The major challenge for designing such a map is to represent the multi-dimensionality and multi-scale nature of the information. The affinities are not limited to the computation of heterogeneous sources of information; they also apply at different scales. The map, thus, shows local affinities inside a given laboratory, as well as global affinities among laboratories. This article presents a graphical grammar to represent affinities. Its effectiveness is illustrated by two actualizations of the design proposal: an interactive online system in which the map can be parameterized, and a large-scale carpet of 250 square meters. In both cases, we discuss how the materiality influences the representation of data, in particular the way key questions could be appropriately addressed considering the three target audiences: the insights gained by the management and their consequences in terms of governance, the understanding of the scholars’ own positioning in the academic group in order to foster opportunities for new collaborations and, eventually, the interpretation of the structure from a general public to evaluate the relevance of the tool for external communication.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frma.2018.00004/fulldata visualizationbibliometricsnetwork visualizationscholarly metricscollaboration metricsaffinities |
| spellingShingle | Dario Rodighiero Frédéric Kaplan Boris Beaude Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics data visualization bibliometrics network visualization scholarly metrics collaboration metrics affinities |
| title | Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations |
| title_full | Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations |
| title_fullStr | Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations |
| title_short | Mapping Affinities in Academic Organizations |
| title_sort | mapping affinities in academic organizations |
| topic | data visualization bibliometrics network visualization scholarly metrics collaboration metrics affinities |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/frma.2018.00004/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dariorodighiero mappingaffinitiesinacademicorganizations AT frederickaplan mappingaffinitiesinacademicorganizations AT borisbeaude mappingaffinitiesinacademicorganizations |