  Proper field delineation plays an important role in scientometric studies,
although it is a tough task. Based on an emerging and interdisciplinary field,
nanoscience and nanotechnology, this paper highlights the problem of field
delineation. First, we review the related literature. Then, three different
approaches to delineate a field of knowledge were applied at three different
levels of aggregation: subject category, publication level, and journal level.
Expert opinion interviews served to assess the data, and precision and recall
of each approach were calculated for comparison. Our findings confirm that
field delineation is a complicated issue at both the quantitative and the
qualitative level, even when experts validate results.

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