SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION IN DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA - INFLUENCE OF NETWORK STRUCTURE ON CHANGE IN A HYBRID PROBLEM AREA

Based on Mulkay's and Kuhn's models of change in scientific structure, a scientific communication model of the emergence of a hybrid researc h area was developed and tested in the field of developmental dyslexia . Data included co-citation data on 74 dyslexia researchers at three p oints in time, who-to-whom communication network data, survey response s, resumes, association and biographical sources, online reference and citation databases, publications, grant databases, and telephone inte rviews. Researchers were partitioned into ''blocks'' of similar scient ists on the basis of co-citation and communication relations, compared on a;elected network-level and individual-level characteristics in or der to validate block labels, and situated historically in the politic s and advances surrounding the problem area. Results show support for Mulkay's model of branching instead of Kuhn's model of scientific revo lution. Evidence points to divergence rather than convergence among th e related research areas, but suggests the need for longitudinal follo w-up in order to rule out the impact of the inertia of aggregate co-ci tation data. Implications for theory, methodology, and research are di scussed.