The article is published in the collection: Science in various dimensions. Collection of scientific works of the II International theoretical and practical conference dedicated to the memory of Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Georgy Fedorovich Mironov . Executive Editor of T. N. Brisin. - Ulyanovsk: Ulyanovsk State Technical University, Ulyanovsk Regional Branch of the Russian Society of Intellectual History, 2010. - C. 102-115. - ISBN 978-5-9795-0567-1 . Modern science is an extremely complex object of knowledge, which determines the emergence and development of many studies by scientific methods of its various aspects, structures and functions. A detailed classification of such metascientific studies is given and their subject areas are indicated, t. e. the forms and levels of differentiation and the side of science analyzed by them.