Who's Connected?

Maps of academic discipline relatedness are not new.  Traditionally, those who study how academic disciplines interact have looked at the citations in publications.  In a new study, Bollen and colleagues have used the way academics click between publications listed by research search engines.  The full map, seen above, may be found by clicking here.

At Thompson Rivers University (TRU) there is one particular linkage that is interesting.  TRU is currently considering re-organizing faculties and one idea is to place social work and nursing together(positioned at 9 o'clock on the main map).  It is an idea that has raised concerns in both schools.  However, if you look at the map section expanded below, this just might make sense.

Data source: Bollen and others.  2009. Clickstream data yields high resolution maps of science. PLos One 4(3): e4803.