Application of Statistical Physics Concepts and Methods to the Study of Science & Technology Systems

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The definition and implementation of Science & Technology (S &T) policies requires information that is timely, reliable, and clear. Because of the character of the production of intellectual knowledge, the development and measurement of S&T indicators is an extremely complex problem. Namely, there are many difficulties in developing indicators that are general and robust and can be applied across (i) the different S&T fields, (ii) for different aggregations levels (from research groups to entire countries), and (iii) equally well for input and output measures. Specifically, fields where advances are slower or where the resources involved are not too large are much easier to quantify and manage than, for example, the life sciences where Federal investment is nowadays very large and for which the pace of change is staggeringly fast. The goal of this interdisciplinary proposal is to address this challenging research problem by using recent concepts of statistical physics, namely, scaling and universality. This research has already been applied in other areas, such as identifying common growth characteristics of countries on the basis of the size of their economies. In addition, preliminary work by these researchers in S&T systems suggests that S&T systems exhibit common universal physics characteristics. The project will try to identify robust, universal, characteristics of the evolution of S&T systems using a variety of input and output measures at varying levels of aggregation. For example, the project will investigate whether national research systems exhibits similar statistical physics characteristics, based on their level of research and development expenditures, and will compare publishing output of European and U.S. university departments using bibliometric data.