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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the disciplinary orientation of scientific publications that were mentioned on different social media platforms, focussing on their differences and similarities with citation counts.

Social media metrics and readership counts, associated with 500,216 publications and their citation data from the Web of Science database, were collected from Altmetric.com and Mendeley. Results are presented through descriptive statistical analyses together with science maps generated with VOSviewer.

The results confirm Mendeley as the most prevalent social media source with similar characteristics to citations in their distribution across fields and their density in average values per publication. The humanities, natural sciences, and engineering disciplines have a much lower presence of social media metrics. Twitter has a stronger focus on general medicine and social sciences. Other sources (blog, Facebook, Google+, and news media mentions) are more prominent in regards to multidisciplinary journals.

This paper reinforces the relevance of Mendeley as a social media source for analytical purposes from a disciplinary perspective, being particularly relevant for the social sciences (together with Twitter). Key implications for the use of social media metrics on the evaluation of research performance (e.g. the concentration of some social media metrics, such as blogs, news items, etc., around multidisciplinary journals) are identified.

This paper seeks to analyse publications on Nigeria indexed in Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) of Thomson Scientific databases respectively to understand the international perspective of aspects of research publication dynamics in both fields.

Data covering the period 2002‐2007 were collected from the SSCI and AHCI of the Web of Science, an online service of Thomson Scientific in June 2008.

SSCI and AHCI indexed a total of 716 publications on Nigeria, 634 and 82 respectively. Paper production in each of these fields rose during 2002 to 2004 and 2005 respectively, and then started dropping. The publications received a total of 1,371 citations; the 82 AHCI documents received only six citations, while the 634 SSCI publications received 1,366 citations, equivalent to means of 0.06 and 2.15 citations per AHCI and SSCI document respectively. Only 6.1 per cent of the AHCI documents were cited compared with 46.7 per cent of SSCI publications; but citation of social science papers was consistently on the increase, while citation of arts and humanities publications, flattened in 200 humanities, was consistently on the increase. In both fields, article type of papers written in English dominated.

This research covers only a period of six years; a fuller picture would be obtained with a longer period.

Publications in sources listed in international databases could illustrate the extent to which Nigerian scholars have addressed issues of global relevance.

The paper uncovers the international status and perspective of Nigerian publications in social science and arts and humanities disciplines.

Two elementary teacher educators redesigned a methods course to integrate social studies and science. Using the framework of science-technology-society (STS) literature and the major themes from Paul Hurd, social studies and science content and methodology converge to create an integrated curriculum for preservice teachers. Concepts, processes, content knowledge, skills, and critical issues are among the interrelated themes of the course. This paper describes the design of the course and discusses how preservice teachers internalized the content. In addition, the successes and challenges of creating and teaching the course along with implications for teacher education are discussed.

Aims to analyse the influence of Norbert Wiener’s ideas on the social sciences and on social systems, including society as a whole. Describes Wiener’s own attitudes regarding the applicability of cybernetics to social systems and his vision on the development of modern society. Highlights sociologists and political scientists who were inspired by his ideas and deals with researchers who tried to apply his ideas to social systems. Concludes by evaluating to what extent specific ideas of Wiener have impacted on the social sciences.

This article reviews existing studies of the invisible college phenomenon and considers the implications for information transfer among researchers, particularly within the social sciences. The likely impact of developments in communications technology on interpersonal networks is discussed and a number of areas for further investigation proposed.

In this monograph the author discusses the problems in constructing a logical and ethical‐empirical foundation so that relevant social values may be studied by the scientific method. Part One is concerned with the difficulties posed by the prevailing methodology. Part Two presents a new research programme based on the simultaneous equilibrium versus disequilibrium approach in conjunction with Wittgenstein's logic and the current research in ethics.

In a recent essay entitled “Value‐relevant Sociology”, David Gray (1983:405–416) argues that if sociology has to be socially relevant, “it is essential that sociology becomes consciously value‐relevant, not value‐free.” He maintains that sociologists cannot analyse the consequences of social structure, forces, and change in a value‐free context if their works are to be relevant for social policies. He then goes on to say, “Between the extremes of value‐free, non‐relevant, sometimes trivial, sociology on the one hand, and immediate response to pressing socioeconomic problems and prevailing political winds on the other, where does the significant sociology lie?” (1983:406). For Gray, both extremes are inappropriate for a worthy academic discipline.

The purpose of this paper is to present retrospective, current and prospective aspects of social marketing and systems science integration.

The paper uses a periodization methodology, based on turning points of conceptual integration between social marketing and systems science.

The paper identifies three periods of integration between social marketing and systems science: initialization of marketing and systems science integration; further conceptualization of the link between marketing and systems science, coupled by permeation of systems thinking into social marketing; and deep integration of social marketing with systems science. The latter period is ongoing and focuses on the origination of strategic systems-based theories and practices for sustainable social change.

The use of a periodization methodology might be biased by subjectivity, as chronological sequences of conceptualization-related events can be hard to decipher and can be reluctant to structural analysis. The necessity to examine the link between marketing and systems science, in so far as social marketing draws upon marketing theory regarding integration with systems science, has social marketing overshadowed by marketing at some points in time.

Historical research of social marketing and systems science integration provides a robust platform for large-scale practical manifestation of system-based strategic projects in social marketing.

This paper demonstrates that the permeation of systems thinking into the social marketing paradigm is gaining momentum and describes the trends, prospects and complexities associated with the accelerating integration.

Sir Julian Huxley (1887‐1975) was one of those rare scientists who, beyond professional training and contribution in biology, was very much concerned with the future of man and humanity. As a social thinker, he strongly believed in eugenics, that science which, in his view, should investigate analytically and practically how to improve the quality of the human race by careful selection of parents. On the other hand, he was aware that practically the attainment of such a goal requires full powers to control social and economic development. He knew that such an attitude may come in conflict with the existing political arrangement in the West but he persisted. As a philosopher he shared a more flexible conception about a better world of tomorrow, leaving room also for the unexpected. He believed that a “New Man” will come from the East, but the judgment of history up to now was not on his side.

The economic science is again in a crisis and a new solution prolegomena to any future study in economics, finance and other social sciences has just been published by the International Institute of Social Economics in care of the MCB University Press in England. The roots of the major financial and economic problems of our time lie in an open conflict between theory and practice. In the 1930s and before the conflict was between classical theory and given realities. In the 1990s the conflict appears between the now prevailing modern, Keynesian theory and the actual realities. In addition during the twentieth century a great argument developed between the two schools of thought, argument which is not yet settled. In one sentence, the prolegomena tried and was successful to solve the conflict between theory and practice and the big doctrinal dispute of the twentieth century. It was a struggle of research and observation over half a century between 1947 and 1997.