An interesting thought. My understanding is that the library science community has been investigating this for some time in terms of the development of ontologi

An interesting thought. My understanding is that the library science community has been investigating this for some time in terms of the development of ontologies and libraries to try to categorize research output. Here's a random paper I found on the broader topic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3129146/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3129146/ I suspect that this field is vastly under-studied and investigated relative to what it ideally should be. Generally speaking, it is easier in more theory-driven sub-fields to probe new areas. And indeed it is often rewarded. It's harder when $ is needed for experiments since that becomes more grant process-driven (something which is inherently more risk-averse). My observation is that usually a few pioneering people push out into a new topic area. Then, whether a community forms around it and starts getting excited about it depends a lot on timing, luck and also resources. Sometimes nothing happens for decades until the stars align and people realize that there's something there.