Theresa Velden studied physics at Bielefeld University and University College Dublin. After several years in positions of responsibility in the area of scientific publishing and information management at the Max Planck Society (1998-2005), she moved to Cornell University. At Cornell, she did her PhD in information science with an external minor in Science & Technology Studies in 2011. In her dissertation research, she studied and compared the sharing behaviour of research groups in chemistry and physics and developed an innovative bibliometric-ethnographic mixed method approach to support the comparative study of scientific fields. As a postdoc, she continued her research first at the Department for Information Science at Cornell University, then at the School of Information at the University of Michigan, where she further pursued the ethnographic study of challenges for interdisciplinary collaboration in data-intensive research projects. She was awarded a Marie Curie/IPODI Fellowship at the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG) at the Technische Universität Berlin for 2016-2018. During this time, she extended her theoretical and methodological knowledge in the sociology of science, and worked on the topics of field-specific forms of Open Science and reproducibility in science. She has been leading the junior research group Field-specific Forms of Open Science at the DZHW since August 2018.
Dr. Theresa Velden
Research Area Research System and Science Dynamics
Head of junior research group
- +49 30 2064177-51
- +49 30 2064177-99
Academic research fields
Science Studies, Information Science, Integration of quantitative and qualitative methods, Comparative field studies, Scientific communication and collaboration
List of projects
List of publications
How to interpret algorithmically constructed topical structures of scientific fields? A case study of citation-based mappings of the research specialty of invasion biology.Held, M., & Velden (2022).How to interpret algorithmically constructed topical structures of scientific fields? A case study of citation-based mappings of the research specialty of invasion biology. Quantitative Science Studies (online first). https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00194 Abstract
Often, bibliometric mapping studies remain at a very abstract level when assessing the validity or accuracy of the generated maps. In this case study of citation-based mappings of a research specialty, we dig deeper into the topical structures generated by the chosen mapping approaches and examine their correspondence to a sociologically informed understanding of the research specialty in question. Our analysis highlights the variety of types of topical relatedness and epistemic interdependency that citations can stand for. Unless we assume that invasion biology is unique, our analysis suggests that global algorithmic field classification approaches that use citation links indiscriminately may struggle to reconstruct research specialties. |
A Case Study of the Epistemic Function of Citations - Implications for Citation-based Science Mapping.Seitz, C., Schmidt, M., Schwichtenberg, N., & Velden, T. (2021).A Case Study of the Epistemic Function of Citations - Implications for Citation-based Science Mapping. In W. Glänzel, S. Heeffer, P.-S. Chi, & R. Rousseau (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Scientometrics & Informetrics (S. 1027-1032). Leuven: KU Leuven / International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (I.S.S.I.). Abstract
The use of citations as indicators of topical relatedness of publications is common in the algorithmic mapping of the structure of science. References to source documents, however, may serve a variety of epistemic functions, and hence represent rather different dimensions of topical relatedness, such as the research methods used, the empirical objects studied, the theoretical resources build on, the research questions pursued, or the external motivation for and relevance of the work. In this case study, we explore the diversity in topical dimensions along which publications are linked in citation networks, by coding the epistemic function of in-text citations. [...] |
The Open Innovation in Science Research Field: A Collaborative Conceptualisation Approach.Beck, S., Bergenholtz, C., Bogers, M., Brasseur, T., Conradsen, M. L., Di Marco, D., ... & Xu, S. M. (2020).The Open Innovation in Science Research Field: A Collaborative Conceptualisation Approach. Industry and Innovation. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2020.1792274 |
How to interpret algorithmically constructed topical structures of research specialties? A case study comparing an internal and an external mapping of the topical structure of invasion biology.Held, M., & Velden, T. (2019).How to interpret algorithmically constructed topical structures of research specialties? A case study comparing an internal and an external mapping of the topical structure of invasion biology. In Catalano, G., Daraio, C., Gregori, M., Moed, H. F., & Ruocco, G (Hrsg.) Proceedings of the 17th Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI 2019), Vol. 2, (S. 1933-1939). Edizioni Efesto. ISBN 978-88-3381-118-5. |
Exploration of reproducibility issues in scientometric research.Velden, T., Hinze, S. Scharnhorst, A. Schneider, J.W., & Waltman, L. (2018).Exploration of reproducibility issues in scientometric research. In STI 2018 Conference Proceedings. Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators. 12-14 September 2018, Leiden, The Netherlands. |
Comparison of Topic Extraction Approaches and Solutions.Velden, T., Boyack, K., Gläser, J., Koopman, R., Scharnhorst, A., & Wang, S. (2017).Comparison of Topic Extraction Approaches and Solutions. In J. Gläser, A. Scharnhorst & W. Glänzel (eds): Same data - different results? Towards a comparative approach to the identification of thematic structures in science, Special Issue of Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2306-1 |
Infomap Clustering of Direct Citation Network and Topic Affinity Analysis.Velden, T., Yan, S., & Lagoze, C. (2017).Infomap Clustering of Direct Citation Network and Topic Affinity Analysis. In Gläser, J., Scharnhorst, A. & Glänzel, W. (eds): Same data - different results? Towards a comparative approach to the identification of thematic structures in science, Special Issue of Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2299-9 |
The Extraction of Community Structures from Publication Networks to Support Comparative Studies of Field Differences in Scientific Communication.Velden, T., & Lagoze, C. (2013).The Extraction of Community Structures from Publication Networks to Support Comparative Studies of Field Differences in Scientific Communication. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), 64(12), 2405-2427. |
Explaining Field Differences in Openness and Sharing in Scientific Communities.Velden, T. (2013).Explaining Field Differences in Openness and Sharing in Scientific Communities. In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), February 25-27, 2013, San Antonio, TX, USA (pp. 445-458). [Best Paper Nomination]. |
Resolving Author Name Homonymy to Improve Res- olution of Structures in Co-author Networks.Velden, T., Haque, A., & Lagoze, C. (2011).Resolving Author Name Homonymy to Improve Res- olution of Structures in Co-author Networks. In Proceedings of ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), June 13 – 17, 2011, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (pp. 241–250). [Best Paper Nomination]. |
A New Approach to Analyzing Patterns of Collaboration in Co-authorship Networks - Mesoscopic Analysis and Interpretation.Velden T., Haque, A., & Lagoze, C. (2010).A New Approach to Analyzing Patterns of Collaboration in Co-authorship Networks - Mesoscopic Analysis and Interpretation. Scientometrics, 85(1), 219 – 242. |
In-car GPS navigation: Engagement with and disengagement from the environment.Leshed, G., Velden, T., Rieger, O., Kot, B., & Sengers P. (2008).In-car GPS navigation: Engagement with and disengagement from the environment. In Proceedings of The 26th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), April 5-10, 2008, Florence, Italy. ACM, New York, NY (pp. 1675-1684). [Best Paper Award]. |
List of presentations & conferences
Since August 2018
Junior research group leader at DZHW
2016-2018
Marie-Curie/IPODI Fellow at TU Berlin
2012-2016
Research Fellow, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
2011-2012
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
2012
Instructor: Web Information Systems, Fall 2012, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
2005-2011
Ph.D., Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
2001-2005
Founding Executive Director of Heinz Nixdorf Center for Information Management, Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany
1998-2001
Managing Editor of Living Reviews in Relativity, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Golm, Germany
1997
Diploma in Physics, University of Bielefeld, Germany
