This chapter is a comprehensive analysis of one literature-based methodology for ‘modeling’ the intellectual organisation and content of scientific disciplines. The method, called ‘co-citation bibliometric modeling’, provides a detailed description of the international research front. It may describe new inter- or multi-disciplinary developments in science, identify the most rapidly evolving subdisciplinary topic areas, and characterise the research activity of nations and organisations. As a result, it has been or is being explored as an intelligence tool for use in science and technology policy by 6 national governments, and may be of interest to large, high technology-based corporations. The objective here is to provide:
1)
a guide to the methodology and its limitations
2)
a guide to uses and interpretations of the data as they have been explored in nationally sponsored studies
3)
an analysis of major unresolved technical and policy relevant issues
4)
an assessment of recent methodological improvements, and
5)
an agenda for future investigations and applications of this information tool