The Transformations of Scientific Fields: Physics, Chemistry

1900-1945

Yves GingrasCanada Research Chair

History and Sociology of ScienceCIRST-UQAM

Distinctions between fields by journal title

Papers and References in Selected Source journals (1900-1944)

Field Papers Papers with references References

References/ Paper

Chemistry 122 902 97 935 1 295 014 13,2

General 112 087 57 188 304 884 5,3

Mathematics 13 496 10 429 82 562 7,9

Physics 59 950 50 275 555 123 11,0

Total 308 435 215 827 2 237 583 10,4

Growth in number of researchers

Growth in the number of papers

Authors’ “productivity”

Collaborative research

Proportion of papers by country (journal publisher)

Note: “other” counties include Sweden, the Netherlands, the USSR and Switzerland

Interdisciplinarity(defined by the journals where scientists publish)

Maths-Phys Chem-Maths Chem-Phys

Bateman, H Loewy, A Harkins, WD

Weyl, H Schmidt, E Trautz, M

Schur, I Saurel, P Langmuir, I

Synge, JL Fischer, E Tammann, G

Bieberbach, L Meyer, E Hahn, O

Hopf, E Schmidt, H Eyring, H

Meyer, E Salkowski, E Tolman, RC

Klein, F Young, RC Huggins, ML

Larmor, J Muller, M Pauli, W

Polya, G Schmidt, R Mark, H

Top 10 interdisciplinary authors (1900-1945)

Chemistry: 54,000 authors

Maths: 2700 authors

Physics: 17,000 authorsChemistry/Physics: 2700

Chemistry/Maths: 130

Maths/Physics: 280

All 3 disciplines: 20

Country of origin of cited publication

Citations in chemistry journals

Citations in Physics Journals

Citations in Mathematics Journals

Impact of disciplines on one another

Citation statistics by country (1900-1944)

Chemistry Germany Other France UK USA

Germany 72.83% 5.69% 5.70% 7.14% 8.64%

Other 36.21% 35.57% 5.79% 10.28% 12.15%

France 39.43% 6.96% 37.94% 7.38% 8.29%

UK 27.95% 4.91% 5.25% 36.80% 25.09%

USA 25.03% 6.31% 5.35% 13.79% 49.52%

Total 51.27% 7.54% 5.93% 11.76% 23.50%

Citin

g

Cited

Maths Germany Other France UK USA

Germany 63.49% 14.90% 9.19% 5.83% 6.59%

Other 31.70% 28.30% 23.43% 7.70% 8.88%

UK 13.04% 7.76% 5.50% 65.03% 8.67%

USA 21.32% 10.55% 7.03% 12.52% 48.57%

Total 36.99% 12.71% 8.53% 22.21% 19.57%

Physics Germany Other France UK USA

Germany 70.96% 4.55% 4.87% 10.75% 8.87%

Other 32.04% 29.47% 3.34% 16.44% 18.71%

France 32.70% 5.61% 39.02% 13.14% 9.54%

UK 24.25% 4.82% 4.68% 41.04% 25.20%

USA 21.72% 4.81% 3.61% 16.24% 53.62%

Total 39.88% 5.31% 5.78% 17.53% 31.50%

Cited

Cited Citin

g

Citin

g

Citation statistics by discipline (1900-1944)

Bio / Med Chemistry General Engineering Maths Physics

Chemistry 9.00% 74.94% 9.11% 0.98% 0.02% 5.95%

Maths 1.58% 0.13% 21.67% 0.41% 70.35% 5.87%

Physics 1.78% 12.50% 21.41% 3.22% 0.57% 60.51%

Total 6.87% 56.20% 12.74% 1.56% 2.13% 20.49%

Citin

g

Cited

Gauging the country of publication of cited articles

% of articles produced by country UK USA Germany Other (*)

Chemistry 6.36 31.51 55.24 6.89

Mathematics 14.17 30.57 49.43 5.83

Physics 18.88 41.49 32.89 6.74

(*) France is included in this category, since the database poorly reflects the French journals in Chemistry and Physics

Based on a semi-random sample of 300 physicists and 500 chemists from each country(**) , we can get an alternative idea of how the cited articles are distributed:

% of articles cited by scientists in: Chemistry Physics

France 11.15 12.08

Germany 38.70 30.67

Other 6.70 5.83

UK 19.95 25.83

USA 23.50 25.58(**) There is insufficient data for the case of mathematicians

Co-citation network of physicists, 1900-1904 (More than 8 co-citations).

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Physics (1905-1911)

• Co-citation network of top 50 most cited authors

• Note two groups which emerge

Node sizes reflect number of citations, visible ties for 11 co-citations or more

Multi-dimensional scaling and agglomerative clustering

• MDS provides a map based on the distances “dissimilarities” between citation patterns of the authors (top 50 most cited authors in physics, 1905-1911)

• AHC then allows us to identify cluster of “similar” authors

• In this case, it identifies two primary, distinct clusters, which are the same as those identified using the networks

Group 2

spectroscopy

Chemical physics

Electron theoryIonization, atom

Word frequency in titles of citing papersGroup2: Ionization of gases, atomic model, emission spectra

… (Thomson, Stark, Wien, Riecke, Lenard, Warburg, Kayser)

Word Frequency

Radiation 34

Light 28

Relativity 24

Electrical 22

waves 20

metals 18

Dispersion 17

Magnetic 17

Heat 17

Electric 15

energy 15

Electromagnetic 14

Electron 13

Absorption 13

metal 13

method 12

moving 12

spectrum 12

Word Frequency

Light 55

rays 36

Radiation 35

Electrical 33

Discharge 28

Absorption 28

gases 27

Spectra 27

spectrum 23

lines 22

Cathode 22

Spectral 21

Emission 19

canal 19

Electricity 17

influence 17

Magnetic 17

Group 1: Special relativity and the photoelectric effect (Einstein, Abraham, Lorentz, Drude, Planck)

Co-citation network of physicists, 1912-1918 (More than 10 co-citations).

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Co-citation network of physicists, 1925-1930 (More than 16 co-citations)

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Co-citation network of physicists, 1937-1944 (More than 21 co-citations)

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Names 1900-04 1905-11 1912-18 1919-24 1925-30 1931-36 1937-44ABRAHAM, M 26 7 19 96 488 - -BETHE, HA - - - - - 34 1BHABHA, HJ - - - - - 438 2BIRGE, RT - - - - 7 15 123BLACKETT - - - - - 75 4BOHR, N - - 16 2 16 151 47BORN, M - 36 42 4 4 29 35BREIT, G - - - - - 25 3COMPTON, AH - - - 17 9 1 28DEBYE, P - - 3 3 10 2 15DIRAC, PAM - - - 17 5 33DRUDE, P 2 2 15 101 156 268 410EINSTEIN, A - 10 4 6 38 - -FERMI, E - - - - 185 9 7FRANCK, J - - 18 5 11 152 -HARTREE, DR - - - - - 8 143HEISENBERG, W - - - 131 1 4 6HUND, F - - - - 3 41 -JAUNCEY, GEM - - - 172 87 10 204JOHNSON, TH - - - - - 17 10LENARD, P 5 4 8 9 37 91 181LORENTZ, HA 13 8 12 13 165 - -LUMMER, O 7 28 106 - - - -MOTT, NF - - - - - 54 5MULLIKEN, RS - - - - 5 6 36NERNST, W 24 24 6 143 - -PASCHEN, F 10 16 13 16 22 186 -PAULI, W - - - 47 6 129 30PLANCK, M 6 5 5 10 108 - -ROSSI, B - - - - - 21 8RUTHERFORD, E 21 13 11 14 118 42 185SCHR…DINGER, E - - - 86 8 63 -SLATER, JC - - - 459 84 3 12SOMMERFELD - 38 9 1 2 27 77STARK, J 4 3 1 8 43 - -THOMSON, JJ 1 1 2 7 34 - -VOIGT, W 22 9 10 29 - 92 -WALLER, I - - - 454 75 7 78WARBURG, E 9 6 26 50 - - -WIEDEMANN, E 8 20 138 109 - - -WIEN, W 3 14 7 19 70 - -WIGNER, E - - - - 150 38 9

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Co-citation network of authors in Mathematics

Journals (1900-1911)

Why We Cannot Predict Nobel Prizes...

Yves Gingras and Matthew WallaceCIRST-UQAM

Nobel prize winners and nominees

Number of physics nominees (1901-44): 813Number of physics winners (1901-44): 47

Number of chemistry nominees (1901-44): 756Number of chemistry winners (1901-44): 43

Evolving profile of prize winners

(n=43)

(n=46)

(n=71)

(n=47)

(n=42)

(n=89)

Probability distribution of rankings 3 years before and after the prize

Note that, in all cases, the winners’ centrality provides a slightly better indicator (for the highest ranks)

(n=172)

(n=169)

(n=167)

(n=166)

How does the distribution of winners’ rankings evolve? (Part I: Physics)

How does the distribution of winners’ rankings evolve? (Part II: Chemistry)