论文标题
数学研究领域的声望和地位
The prestige and status of research fields within mathematics
论文作者
论文摘要
尽管``科学的层次结构''已经得到了广泛的分析，但尚无对给定科学领域子场状态的相应研究。我们使用文献计量数据表明数学子场在数学社区中具有不同的``站立''。排名较高的部门往往比其他子领域更专门研究某些子领域，并且在最选择性的数学期刊或最高奖品的接收者中，同一子领域也被过分代表。此外，在观察期（1984--2016）中，子场的这种地位明显发展，其中一些子领域获得了，而另一些则失去了地位。子领域的状态与不同的出版习惯有关，但是其中一些差异与考虑科学领域的层次结构时观察到的差异相反。 我们检查了不同子场的``状态''可能解释。一些自然的解释 - 资金的可用性，应用的重要性 - 似乎没有起作用，表明该学科内部的因素正在起作用。我们提出了一种不同类型的解释，基于一个子场的``焦点''概念，可能是或可能不是数学特定的。
While the ``hierarchy of science'' has been widely analysed, there is no corresponding study of the status of subfields within a given scientific field. We use bibliometric data to show that subfields of mathematics have a different ``standing'' within the mathematics community. Highly ranked departments tend to specialize in some subfields more than in others, and the same subfields are also over-represented in the most selective mathematics journals or among recipients of top prizes. Moreover this status of subfields evolves markedly over the period of observation (1984--2016), with some subfields gaining and others losing in standing. The status of subfields is related to different publishing habits, but some of those differences are opposite to those observed when considering the hierarchy of scientific fields. We examine possible explanations for the ``status'' of different subfields. Some natural explanations -- availability of funding, importance of applications -- do not appear to function, suggesting that factors internal to the discipline are at work. We propose a different type of explanation, based on a notion of ``focus'' of a subfield, that might or might not be specific to mathematics.
