PARTICIPATION IN SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS - A NEW PROSOPOGRAPHICAL APPROACH TO THE DISCIPLINARY HISTORY OF SCIENCE - THE CASE OF IMMUNOLOGY, 1951-72

To handle the enormous amount of sources in modern and contemporary sc ience, the historian can use different quantitative methods, particula rly varieties of citation analysis. So far, all these methods have bee n based on publication data. Taking as its point of departure the fact that meetings constitute a pervasive, yet neglected, aspect of scienc e, this paper introduces analysis of participation in scientific meeti ngs. The strength of this new prosopographical method is illustrated b y an analysis of international immunological meetings in the period 19 51-72. Frequency of participation in meetings seems to be correlated t o professional standing in immunology. By means of cluster analysis of participation data, the subdisciplinary structure and dynamics of imm unology can be reconstructed.