Mapping Intellectual Structures and Dynamics of Detecting Research Fronts Domain

Abstract

To date, very few research has been taken to quantitatively visualize the intellectual evolution of the field of detecting research fronts. Based on literature-searching analysis from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science as well as scientometrics mapping analysis, this important research topic is analyzed by techniques from informetric and bibliometric domains to detect its intellectual structures and dynamics. After data reduction and clean-up, 1841 articles published from 1991 to 2016 are downloaded, and two network analyses are conducted: a bibliometric approach (i.e. co-occurrence and co-citation network) and a complex network approach utilizing Chen’s CiteSpace. Results are illustrated as the following: (1) growth of publications is divided into three stages: a stagnant phase (1991 - 2002), a takeoff phase (2003 - 2009) and a blooming phase (2010 - 2016); (2) most of the research institutions in this domain are concentrated in the United States, China, Japan and some developed countries in Europe. Chinese research in this area is mainly concentrated in Wuhan university, Chinese academy of science and Dalian university of technology; (3) publications of detecting research fronts mainly focus on the disciplines of Compute Science, Engineering and Information science library science; (4) we find three main academic communities in this domain, and they mainly focus on development and application of methods detecting research fronts; (5) methods detecting research fronts are classified into two categories: citations analysis and topic words analysis; (6) Scientific researchers began to frequently use the database for scientometrics research after 2012 and medical field began to use this approach to understand some of the frontier dynamics in the field in 2014.