Book

Every scientific visualization makes a claim about what can be known from evidence. Yet the apparent clarity of a chart, map, or network can conceal decisions about measurement, data provenance, classification, normalization, uncertainty, and visual encoding. Visualizing Science and Technology: From Measured Traces to Defensible Visual Knowledge examines these decisions and their consequences for the study of science, technology, and innovation. Across seventeen chapters, the book connects epistemology and graphical perception with the practical analysis of quantitative comparisons, networks, geographical patterns, time series, scientific imagery, and three-dimensional representations. Applications include science mapping, research collaboration, patent and technology landscapes, innovation systems, and policy interpretation. Illustrated studies show how changes in data selection, analytical parameters, or graphical design can alter what appears significant and what may reasonably be inferred. Designed for researchers, graduate students, and professionals in scientometrics, science and technology studies, research evaluation, innovation management, and public policy, this volume offers a rigorous foundation for producing, interpreting, and critically assessing visual evidence. Its central concern is the defensibility of the knowledge claim behind the image.