خلاصة:
This study historically analyzes the scientific output of Mathematics to describe its
structure, notions and scientific origin using the historiographical method. The
research data consisted of scientific outputs of Mathematics in ISI database,
Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) during 8
years (1990 to 2007). The data collection tool was the search engine and the
analysis part of the WOS and also HistCiteTM software. According to White (2003),
the sample of the study was circa one percent of the studied data (i.e. 120
documents) that was analyzed based on two different aspects: Local Citation Score
(LCS) and Global Citation Score (GCS).The research results show that with regard
to Local Citation Score (LCS), five scientific clusters were formed and all of them
were related to different fields of “Mathematics Education”. Based on Global
Citation Score (GCS), there were no significant scientific cluster in this field, and
this is while the amount of Global Citation Score was significantly more than Local
Citation Score. According to the findings it seems that:
1. The major scientific clusters and transitions in Mathematics are mostly
related to theoretical fields as this issue has caused a new paradigm in this
discipline.
2. The amount of this scientific field’s influence on Applied Mathematics is
much more than the non- Applied Mathematics.
ملخص الجهاز:
The research results show that with regard to Local Citation Score (LCS), five scientific clusters were formed and all of them were related to different fields of “Mathematics Education”.
One of the unexpected results of this study was that none of the subject areas of the 5 clusters in LCS map (Figure 1) were in Mathematics (pure and/or practical) while all 5 clusters were about Applied Mathematics in different social science subject fields.
The important scientific notions formed in the history of Mathematics from 1990 to 2007 based on local citation score Cluster number 1 or the first notion consists of 14 documents.
The cooperation of Mercer and Miller in publishing two important articles in this notion is noticeable (Documents numbers 504 and 2472) and the self-citation of these authors has created part of the inner cluster links.
Formed notions in the GCS map of Mathematics during the years 1990-2007 Discussion The results of the study have revealed that the larger part of the influential scientific publications of Mathematics is related to the theoretical fields of “Mathematics Education”.
Analyzing the important processes in the history of Mathematics based on local citations indicates that the most affective cause of creating notions and scientific paradigms in this field is the formed connections based on specific subject fields and the schools and notions formed in the history of this science are a sub-category of “Mathematics Education” and the most outstanding authors, journals and notions are related to this area.
Suggestion Regarding this research, the authors suggest another study to investigate the scientific notions formed in Mathematics just based on Science Citation Index database (SCI).