all roads go through the humanities
by Phillip Barron
Whether they cite the articles that influence their thinking or not, scientists consult the humanities and social sciences.
A recent study by Johan Bollen and his colleagues at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico used anonymized server log data from 35,000 journals over a two year period. Included in their published findings is a “knowledge map,” a spatial-visual representation of the academic disciplines represented by the articles that the scientists consulted while researching online. The centrality of the humanities, represented in yellow, is a curious finding given that humanities departments across the country are feeling pressure to defend their utility, while the sciences are not feeling similar pressure.
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[...] Março 17, 2009 all roads go through the humanities [...]