Detection and analysis of "bibliographic clusters" in Iberoamerican publications on science, technology and society (1979-2013)

Science, Technology and Society (STS) field shows a clear consolidation, manifested in the existence of journals, conferences, a common language and the possibility of identifying a set of actors belonging to him. However, the demarcation of the field is not easy. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present a new methodology to identify and analyze the STS publications in the world and particularly in Latin America. Using the Web of Science database, 47,349 documents (4.6% from Latin America) where recovered and the main bibliometric indicators of activity and specialization were obtained. To study the thematic and the intertextual relationships of publications, bibliographic coupling techniques — to identify “Bibliographical clusters”— were used. Through this approach we try to know the thematic structure of STS research and analyze their dynamics over time.