Modelling Science

The aim of this workshop is to bring together different approaches of modelling and visualizing the science system (including the social sciences and humanities). During the last forty years, a variety of explanatory, exploratory, and metaphorical models of the science system have been used in a number of different fields. As a consequence, this topic appears at very different conferences on agent?based modelling, social simulations, network models or cybernetics. At this workshop we will bring together different models of science.  By integrating empirical data, visualization and modelling standards and tools, and different modes of interpretation and critical reflection, the workshop will provide an international opportunity for the exchange and diffusion of this expert knowledge about the innerdynamics of scholarly activities in a variety of fields. We are determined to use this workshop to mobilize the new possibilities to measure and visualize scholarly activities as point of departure for more advanced explanatory tools (quantitative as well as qualitative). Within the domain of possible explanations of the dynamics and mechanisms of knowledge production, we will concentrate on exploring the potential of mathematical models and simulations. The workshop aims to act as catalytic event and to initiate a new mode of systematic study of “models of science” by bringing together a “critical mass” of experts from different fields. The workshop will build on the rich scholarly landscape in the Netherlands of studying science and scholarly activities. By bringing together the experts on modelling, measuring, visualizing, and analyzing scholarly activities, we aim to gain new insights into basic mechanisms of scholarly activities and to explore the limits and possibilities of modeling for explanation and forecasting. This colloquium also functions as a starting point for the further development of computational practices in science studies. The workshop will be the platform for the launch of a novel interdisciplinary discourse on modelling science and contribute toe?research efforts at the boundaries between natural, computer and information sciences and social sciences and humanities.