Evolution of the public understanding of science field based on a bibliometric analysis of two major journals

Abstract

This paper is part of the reflection initiated in 2016 following the 20th anniversary of the Public Understanding of Science Journal, analyzing both the thematic evolution of the journal itself and broader aspects of the evolution of the field. Here, we aim to analyze developments in PUS based on all the papers published in the field’s two major journals: Science Communication and Public Understanding of Science. We propose to study the field based on the epistemic relations established between texts resulting from the references they include. Thus, although the aforementioned journals constitute our source of information, by incorporating in the analysis the references of all the papers in these journals – which include books and other journals – we significantly expand the scope and build the epistemic links that are established by the texts analyzed in a very specific way.

Keywords

• science literacy
• public understanding of science
• science communication