TRIANGULATION AS A RESEARCH STRATEGY FOR IDE NTIFYING INVISIBLE COLLEGES AMONG BIOMEDICAL SCIENTISTS

A triangulation strategy, employing a number of network analysis techniques, was implemented in the study of a single social network of biomedical scientists specializing in lipid metabolism research. Here we present the results of co-word analysis of grants awarded to these scientists by the National Institutes of Health, network analysis (NEGOPY) and factor analysis of the scientists' responses on a sociometric roster instrument, preliminary results of a co-citation analysis of their publications, and qualitative analysis of their responses to interviews and questionnaires. The findings are discussed in light of the relative information that the various techniques contribute to the understanding of the social relationships among the members of this scientific speciality.