Abstract
In this paper, a method how to define an inner structure of social sciences is proposed. Concepts and subjects of each scientific discipline are reflected in conceptual frameworks used for subject analysis such as classification schemes and thesauri. In the case of social sciences, Thematic List of Descriptors, a thesaurus of International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), provides interdisciplinary relationships by cross-references across the four separate enumerative classification schemes of economics, political science, sociology, and cultural anthropology. An analysis of the Thematic List enables us to understand mutual overlapping of the subjects in social sciences. Since each descriptor operates as cross-reference in the Thematic List, the number of descriptors indicates the degree of relationships between given disciplines at the conceptual level. As a result, sociology proved to be closely related to the other three disciplines, especially to anthropology; 2,338 descriptors out of all the 6,486 descriptors are doubly referred to sociology and anthropology. On the contrary, the discipline containing least overlapping descriptors was economics, the most independent discipline. Also, the paper presents the inner structure in which subject areas subordinated to the four disciplines are connected by the descriptor links.
