The most important subdisciplines of science policy are:
1) Evaluative bibliometrics or scientometrics
Publication output and received citations can be used for evaluation
purposes of "qualitative" aspects of scientific activity, particularly
of research performance.
They can be used to assess the research performance of various actors, ranging
from individual researchers to departments, universities and research institutes,
entire countries or fields.
2) Mapping of scientific (sub)fields
Maps of science can be created using different techniques, among which
are the co-citation technique, the co-word technique and combination of bot
techniques.The aim of mapping science is mainly concerned with understanding
both the structure and the evolution of scientific (sub)fields or displaying
both the structural and dynamic aspects of scientific research.