Exploring the potential of scientometrics for the humanities and social sciences: Towards the future

摘要

Professor Sooryamoorthy’s inspiration for writing a book on scientometrics for the humanities and social sciences (HSS) originated with a question he personally had wrestled with as a social scientist: why do HSS scholars seem indifferent to scientometric studies in their own disciplines, while the few HSS scholars who do conduct scientometric studies mostly do so with the science disciplines in mind? Considering this question, his goal for the book was to attract HSS scholars to the field of scientometrics by being both informative and illustrative – informative, by giving researchers in the HSS a broad overview of the scientometric approach, and illustrative, by showing, through cases, the application of scientometric techniques in the HSS. Sooryamoorthy’s book consists of five chapters, each of which aims to bring to the attention of HSS scholars the potential of scientometrics as a method for descriptive and evaluative analyses in the HSS.