Using curricula vitae for mapping scientific fields: a small-scale experience for Swiss communication sciences

This paper presents an approach to mapping a scientific field characterised by conceptual, theoretical and methodological pluralism — communication — in a country characterised by diversity at the socio-political and cultural level: Switzerland. Given the limitations of standard bibliometric analyses in this field, we propose an approach based on a combination of different data sources, including the CVs and publication lists of researchers. Our results show a complex map of the field's institutional, cognitive and social structures. Our pragmatic approach is based on readily available data from different sources. Selective analysis of CVs based on precise research questions appears to be a strong tool that gives insights into the structures of a field in an efficient way. It seems that this kind of approach is best suited for analysing rather small communities, either geographically or subject-wise, where the elaboration of detailed information is possible. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.