Scientometrics and Network Science

Abstract Science describes and explains the world through research articles and books that are organised into scientific fields. Scientometricians including network scientists analyse this scientific literature. To do so, they rely on the indicators of citations and publication counts to study issues such as research productivity, team collaborations, career dynamics, networks of scientists and institutions, and novelty in science. They use large-scale data (big data) and network analysis and search for patterns in such data. That is scientometrics in a nutshell. Scientometrics is of interest to all researchers as citations and publication counts largely determine whether researchers get research grants, academic jobs and promotions. Most current measures of scientific impact and success still use citations. Our current reward system in science is deeply embedded in this metric.