Showing papers in "Scientometrics in 2011"
TL;DR: This paper uses Scientometric analysis to analyze all sub-domains of agent-based computing, and results include the identification of the largest cluster based on keywords, the timeline of publication of index terms, the core journals and key subject categories.
Abstract: Agent-based computing is a diverse research domain concerned with the building of intelligent software based on the concept of "agents". In this paper, we use Scientometric analysis to analyze all sub-domains of agent-based computing. Our data consists of 1,064 journal articles indexed in the ISI web of knowledge published during a 20 year period: 1990---2010. These were retrieved using a topic search with various keywords commonly used in sub-domains of agent-based computing. In our proposed approach, we have employed a combination of two applications for analysis, namely Network Workbench and CiteSpace--wherein Network Workbench allowed for the analysis of complex network aspects of the domain, detailed visualization-based analysis of the bibliographic data was performed using CiteSpace. Our results include the identification of the largest cluster based on keywords, the timeline of publication of index terms, the core journals and key subject categories. We also identify the core authors, top countries of origin of the manuscripts along with core research institutes. Finally, our results have interestingly revealed the strong presence of agent-based computing in a number of non-computing related scientific domains including Life Sciences, Ecological Sciences and Social Sciences.
304 citations
TL;DR: The experience of Taiwan’s NHIRD should encourage national- or institutional-level data holders to consider re-using their administrative databases for academic purposes, and the effects on overall growth, scholar response, and spread of the study fields are analyzed.
Abstract: The trend to use administrative health care databases as research material is increasing but not well explored. Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), one of the largest administrative health care databases around the world, has been used widely in academic studies. This study analyzed 383 NHIRD studies published between 2000 and 2009 to quantify the effects on overall growth, scholar response, and spread of the study fields. The NHIRD studies expanded rapidly in both quantity and quality since the first study was published in 2000. Researchers usually collaborated to share knowledge, which was crucial to process the NHIRD data. However, once the fundamental problem had been overcome, success to get published became more reproducible. NHIRD studies were also published diversely in a growing number of journals. Both general health and clinical science studies benefited from NHIRD. In conclusion, this new research material widely promotes scientific production in a greater magnitude. The experience of Taiwan's NHIRD should encourage national- or institutional-level data holders to consider re-using their administrative databases for academic purposes.
258 citations
TL;DR: The q-index is proposed as an indicator for how strategically an author has placed self-citations, and which serves as a tool to detect possible manipulation of the h-index.
Abstract: The h-index has received an enormous attention for being an indicator that measures the quality of researchers and organizations. We investigate to what degree authors can inflate their h-index through strategic self-citations with the help of a simulation. We extended Burrell's publication model with a procedure for placing self-citations, following three different strategies: random self-citation, recent self-citations and h-manipulating self-citations. The results show that authors can considerably inflate their h-index through self-citations. We propose the q-index as an indicator for how strategically an author has placed self-citations, and which serves as a tool to detect possible manipulation of the h-index. The results also show that the best strategy for an high h-index is publishing papers that are highly cited by others. The productivity has also a positive effect on the h-index.
239 citations
TL;DR: The findings showed that differences exist between articles with different types of titles in terms of downloads and citations, especially articles with question titles tended to be downloaded more but cited less than the others.
Abstract: Title of an article can be descriptive, declarative or a question. It plays important role in both marketing and findability of article. We investigate the impact of the type of article titles on the number of citations and downloads articles receive. Number of downloads and citations for all articles published in six of PLoS (Public Library of Science) journals (2,172 articles) were obtained from PLoS and type of each article's title (including descriptive, indicative and question) was determined as well as the number of substantive words in title (title length). Statistical difference and correlation tests were carried out. The findings showed that differences exist between articles with different types of titles in terms of downloads and citations, especially articles with question titles tended to be downloaded more but cited less than the others. Articles with longer titles were downloaded slightly less than the articles with shorter titles. Titles with colon tended to be longer and receive fewer downloads and citations. As expected, number of downloads and citations were positively correlated.
220 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an empirical comparison between two normalization mechanisms for citation-based indicators of research performance, which aim to normalize citation counts for the field and the year in which a publication was published.
Abstract: We present an empirical comparison between two normalization mechanisms for citation-based indicators of research performance. These mechanisms aim to normalize citation counts for the field and the year in which a publication was published. One mechanism is applied in the current so-called crown indicator of our institute. The other mechanism is applied in the new crown indicator that our institute is currently exploring. We find that at high aggregation levels, such as at the level of large research institutions or at the level of countries, the differences between the two mechanisms are very small. At lower aggregation levels, such as at the level of research groups or at the level of journals, the differences between the two mechanisms are somewhat larger. We pay special attention to the way in which recent publications are handled. These publications typically have very low citation counts and should therefore be handled with special care.
212 citations
TL;DR: The purpose of this paper is to compare the most commonly used definitions of patent families and identify factors causing differences in family outcomes, and to shed light into the internal structure of patent Families to see how it affects patent family outcomes based on different definitions.
Abstract: Data on patent families is used in economic and statistical studies for many purposes, including the analysis of patenting strategies of applicants, the monitoring of the globalization of inventions and the comparison of the inventive performance and stock of technological knowledge of different countries. Most of these studies take family data as given, as a sort of black box, without going into the details of their underlying methodologies and patent linkages. However, different definitions of patent families may lead to different results. One of the purposes of this paper is to compare the most commonly used definitions of patent families and identify factors causing differences in family outcomes. Another objective is to shed light into the internal structure of patent families and see how it affects patent family outcomes based on different definitions. An automated characterization of the internal structures of all extended families with earliest priorities in the 1990s, as recorded in PATSTAT, found that family counts are not affected by the choice of patent family definitions in 75% of families. However, different definitions may really matter for the 25% of families with complex structures and lead to different family compositions, which might have an impact, for instance, on econometric studies using family size as a proxy of patent value.
202 citations
TL;DR: There was a significant positive correlation between the number of authors and the numberof citations in Harvard publications, whereas publications with more number of foreign collaborators were not much highly cited.
Abstract: This study aims to investigate the influence of different patterns of collaboration on the citation impact of Harvard University's publications. Those documents published by researchers affiliated with Harvard University in WoS from 2000---2009, constituted the population of the research which was counted for 124,937 records. Based on the results, only 12% of Harvard publications were single author publications. Different patterns of collaboration were investigated in different subject fields. In all 22 examined fields, the number of co-authored publications is much higher than single author publications. In fact, more than 60% of all publications in each field are multi-author publications. Also, the normalized citation per paper for co-authored publications is higher than that of single author publications in all fields. In addition, the largest number of publications in all 22 fields were also published through inter-institutional collaboration and were as a result of collaboration among domestic researchers and not international ones. In general, the results of the study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between the number of authors and the number of citations in Harvard publications. In addition, publications with more number of institutions have received more number of citations, whereas publications with more number of foreign collaborators were not much highly cited.
177 citations
TL;DR: Using the entire population of professors at universities in the province of Quebec (Canada), the article shows that, after they have passed the age of about 38, women receive, on average, less funding for research than men, are generally less productive in terms of publications, and are at a slight disadvantage in Terms of the scientific impact of their publications.
Abstract: Using the entire population of professors at universities in the province of Quebec (Canada), this article analyzes the relationship between sex and research funding, publication rates, and scientific impact. Since age is an important factor in research and the population pyramids of men and women are different, the role of age is also analyzed. The article shows that, after they have passed the age of about 38, women receive, on average, less funding for research than men, are generally less productive in terms of publications, and are at a slight disadvantage in terms of the scientific impact (measured by citations) of their publications. Various explanations for these differences are suggested, such as the more restricted collaboration networks of women, motherhood and the accompanying division of labour, women's rank within the hierarchy of the scientific community and access to resources as well as their choice of research topics and level of specialization.
172 citations
TL;DR: Evidence is found that a higher share of funds from external sources and a higher number of women among academic staff improve the efficiency of the institution, and a considerable variability of efficiency scores within and between countries is indicated.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine efficiency and its determinants in a set of higher education institutions (HEIs) from several European countries by means of non-parametric frontier techniques Our analysis is based on a sample of 259 public HEIs from 7 European countries across the time period of 2001---2005 We conduct a two-stage DEA analysis (Simar and Wilson in J Economet 136:31---64, 2007), first evaluating DEA scores and then regressing them on potential covariates with the use of a bootstrapped truncated regression Results indicate a considerable variability of efficiency scores within and between countries Unit size (economies of scale), number and composition of faculties, sources of funding and gender staff composition are found to be among the crucial determinants of these units' performance Specifically, we found evidence that a higher share of funds from external sources and a higher number of women among academic staff improve the efficiency of the institution
170 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the peer-review and bibliometrics approaches in the conduct of national research assessment exercises in terms of the essential parameters of any measurement system: accuracy, robustness, validity, functionality, time and costs.
Abstract: National research assessment exercises are becoming regular events in ever more countries. The present work contrasts the peer-review and bibliometrics approaches in the conduct of these exercises. The comparison is conducted in terms of the essential parameters of any measurement system: accuracy, robustness, validity, functionality, time and costs. Empirical evidence shows that for the natural and formal sciences, the bibliometric methodology is by far preferable to peer-review. Setting up national databases of publications by individual authors, derived from Web of Science or Scopus databases, would allow much better, cheaper and more frequent national research assessments.
170 citations
TL;DR: A patent network based on semantic patent analysis using subject-action-object (SAO) structures is proposed to identify the technological importance of patents, the characteristics of patent clusters, and the technological capabilities of competitors.
Abstract: Patents constitute an up-to-date source of competitive intelligence in technological development; thus, patent analysis has been a vital tool for identifying technological trends. Patent citation analysis is easy to use, but fundamentally has two main limitations: (1) new patents tend to be less cited than old ones and may miss citations to contemporary patents; (2) citation-based analysis cannot be used for patents in databases which do not require citations. Naturally, citation-based analysis tends to underestimate the importance of new patents and may not work in rapidly-evolving industries in which technology life-cycles are shortening and new inventions are increasingly patented world-wide. As a remedy, this paper proposes a patent network based on semantic patent analysis using subject-action-object (SAO) structures. SAO structures represent the explicit relationships among components used in a patent, and are considered to represent key concepts of the patent or the expertise of the inventor. Based on the internal similarities between patents, the patent network provides the up-to-date status of a given technology. Furthermore, this paper suggests new indices to identify the technological importance of patents, the characteristics of patent clusters, and the technological capabilities of competitors. The proposed method is illustrated using patents related to synthesis of carbon nanotubes. We expect that the proposed procedure and analysis will be incorporated into technology planning processes to assist experts such as researchers and R&D policy makers in rapidly-evolving industries.
TL;DR: Examining the international collaborations of Italian university researchers for the period 2001–2005 shows that both research productivity and average quality of output have positive effects on the degree of international collaboration achieved by a scientist.
Abstract: Policy makers, at various levels of governance, generally encourage the development of research collaboration. However the underlying determinants of collaboration are not completely clear. In particular, the literature lacks studies that, taking the individual researcher as the unit of analysis, attempt to understand if and to what extent the researcher's scientific performance might impact on his/her degree of collaboration with foreign colleagues. The current work examines the international collaborations of Italian university researchers for the period 2001---2005, and puts them in relation to each individual's research performance. The results of the investigation, which assumes co-authorship as proxy of research collaboration, show that both research productivity and average quality of output have positive effects on the degree of international collaboration achieved by a scientist.
TL;DR: The results of the aggregation into disciplines and fields reveal that power law algebra is a subtle phenomenon and the shape of these distributions over three broad categories of articles appears strikingly similar.
Abstract: This paper studies evidence from Thomson Scientific (TS) about the citation process of 3.7 million articles published in the period 1998---2002 in 219 Web of Science (WoS) categories, or sub-fields. Reference and citation distributions have very different characteristics across sub-fields. However, when analyzed with the Characteristic Scores and Scales (CSS) technique, which is replication and scale invariant, the shape of these distributions over three broad categories of articles appears strikingly similar. Reference distributions are mildly skewed, but citation distributions with a 5-year citation window are highly skewed: the mean is 20 points above the median, while 9---10% of all articles in the upper tail account for about 44% of all citations. The aggregation of sub-fields into disciplines and fields according to several aggregation schemes preserve this feature of citation distributions. It should be noted that when we look into subsets of articles within the lower and upper tails of citation distributions the universality partially breaks down. On the other hand, for 140 of the 219 sub-fields the existence of a power law cannot be rejected. However, contrary to what is generally believed, at the sub-field level the scaling parameter is above 3.5 most of the time, and power laws are relatively small: on average, they represent 2% of all articles and account for 13.5% of all citations. The results of the aggregation into disciplines and fields reveal that power law algebra is a subtle phenomenon.
TL;DR: Analysis of trends and characteristics of papers in the subject category of water resources in the ESI database of the Institute for Scientific Information showed that the USA and UK were the two leading nations and the University of Arizona was the most productive institute.
Abstract: The Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database is widely used to evaluate institutions and researchers. The objective of this study was to analyze trends and characteristics of papers in the subject category of water resources in the ESI database of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). Distributions of document type, language of publication, scientific output, and publication of journals are reported in this article. Five indicators (the number and ranking of total papers, first-author papers, corresponding-author papers, independent papers, and collaborative papers) were applied to evaluate country, institute, and author performances. In addition, the numbers of authors cited, numbers of institutes cited, numbers of countries cited, and numbers of subject areas cited were also used to evaluate ESI papers. Results showed that 265 papers, all written in English, were listed in 27 journals in the field of water resources. A review paper was more likely to be included in the ESI than a research paper. Journal of Hydrology published the most papers. The USA and UK were the two leading nations. ESI papers published in the US were more likely to involve inter-institutional collaboration than papers published in the UK. The University of Arizona was the most productive institute. Some papers that were almost excluded from the ESI database appear to have consistently received annual high frequencies of citation. Perhaps the 10 year criterion for inclusion in the ESI should be reassessed.
TL;DR: Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to cluster the subject headings and the strategic diagram is formed to analyze the evolutionary trends in the stem cell field.
Abstract: In this paper, co-word analysis is used to analyze the evolvement in stem cell field. Articles in the stem cell journals are downloaded from PubMed for analysis. Terms selection is one of the most important steps in co-word analysis, so the useless and the general subject headings are removed firstly, and then the major subject headings and minor subject headings are weighted respectively. Then, improved information entropy is exploited to select the subject headings with the experts consulting. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to cluster the subject headings and the strategic diagram is formed to analyze the evolutionary trends in the stem cell field.
TL;DR: A novel bibliometric approach to undertaking funding acknowledgement analysis which links research outputs with their funding sources and offers a new approach not only in identifying the funding sources of publications but also in feasibly undertaking large-scale analyses across scientific fields, institutions and countries.
Abstract: There is increasing interest in assessing how sponsored research funding influences the development and trajectory of science and technology. Traditionally, linkages between research funding and subsequent results are hard to track, often requiring access to separate funding or performance reports released by researchers or sponsors. Tracing research sponsorship and output linkages is even more challenging when researchers receive multiple funding awards and collaborate with a variety of differentially-sponsored research colleagues. This article presents a novel bibliometric approach to undertaking funding acknowledgement analysis which links research outputs with their funding sources. Using this approach in the context of nanotechnology research, the article probes the funding patterns of leading countries and agencies including patterns of cross-border research sponsorship. We identify more than 91,500 nanotechnology articles published worldwide during a 12-month period in 2008---2009. About 67% of these publications include funding acknowledgements information. We compare articles reporting funding with those that do not (for reasons that may include reliance on internal core-funding rather than external awards as well as omissions in reporting). While we find some country and field differences, we judge that the level of reporting of funding sources is sufficiently high to provide a basis for analysis. The funding acknowledgement data is used to compare nanotechnology funding policies and programs in selected countries and to examine their impacts on scientific output. We also examine the internationalization of research funding through the interplay of various funding sources at national and organizational levels. We find that while most nanotechnology funding is nationally-oriented, internationalization and knowledge exchange does occur as researchers collaborate across borders. Our method offers a new approach not only in identifying the funding sources of publications but also in feasibly undertaking large-scale analyses across scientific fields, institutions and countries.
TL;DR: Findings show that the corresponding author is most likely to appear first and then last in the byline, which underscores the need to take into account both the number of authors on a paper and their position in theByline to be accurate when measuring author contribution.
Abstract: Bibliometric indicators are increasingly used to fund and evaluate scientific research. Since the number of authors in a paper and the number of has increased it is difficult to determine the individual contribution of authors. Suggested approaches include the study of author position or the corresponding author. Our findings show that the corresponding author is most likely to appear first and then last in the byline. The results are dependent on number of authors in a paper and national differences exist. This underscores the need to take into account both the number of authors on a paper and their position in the byline to be accurate when measuring author contribution.
TL;DR: There is a strong trend for signatures of younger researchers and those in the lower professional ranks to appear in the first position, while more veteran or highly-ranked ones, who tend to play supervisory functions in research, are proportionally more likely to sign in the last position.
Abstract: Scientific authorship has important implications in science since it reflects the contribution to research of the different individual scientists and it is considered by evaluation committees in research assessment processes. This study analyses the order of authorship in the scientific output of 1,064 permanent scientists at the Spanish CSIC (WoS, 1994---2004). The influence of age, professional rank and bibliometric profile of scientists over the position of their names in the byline of publications is explored in three different research areas: Biology and Biomedicine, Materials Science and Natural Resources. There is a strong trend for signatures of younger researchers and those in the lower professional ranks to appear in the first position (junior signing pattern), while more veteran or highly-ranked ones, who tend to play supervisory functions in research, are proportionally more likely to sign in the last position (senior signing pattern). Professional rank and age have an effect on authorship order in the three fields analysed, but there are inter-field differences. Authorship patterns are especially marked in the most collaboration-intensive field (i.e. Biology and Biomedicine), where professional rank seems to be more significant than age in determining the role of scientists in research as seen through their authorship patterns, while age has a more significant effect in the least collaboration-intensive field (Natural Resources).
TL;DR: The results show that a higher intensity at which scholars are embedded in a collaboration network, results in higher research quality, and member diversity does not seem to be a major concern during the organization of a research group.
Abstract: Better research quality not only inspires scholars to continue their research, but also increases the possibility of higher research budgets from sponsors. Given the importance of research quality, this study proposes that utilizing social capital (i.e., research collaboration) might be a promising avenue to achieve better research quality. In addition, as every scholar has his or her own expertise and knowledge, the diversity of collaborating members might be an extra resource for reinforcing research quality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of research collaboration and member diversity on research quality, including the number of citations, the impact factor, and the size of the research award. To explore unknown associations, the author adopts two data sources, that is, the Social Science Citation Index database and academic database of a university, to verify the hypotheses. The results show that a higher intensity at which scholars are embedded in a collaboration network, results in higher research quality. However, member diversity does not seem to be a major concern during the organization of a research group. Research quality is not affected, regardless of whether a scholar collaborates with different or the same co-authors.
TL;DR: There was a strong relationship between scientific research and the degree of “knowledgization” of economy, and 4 clusters of countries were identified: Singapore as the first group; Thailand and Malaysia in the second group; Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines in the third group; and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei in the fourth group.
Abstract: This article seeks to examine the relationship between scientific output and knowledge economy index in 10 South East Asian countries (ASEAN). Using bibliometric data of the Institute of Scientific Information, we analyzed the number of scientific articles published in international peer-reviewed journals between 1991 and 2010 for Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Singapore. During the 20-year period, scientists from the ASEAN countries have published 165,020 original articles in ISI indexed journals, which represents ~0.5% of the world scientific output. Singapore led the region with the highest number of publications (accounting for 45% of the countries' total publications), followed by Thailand (21%), Malaysia (16%), Vietnam (6%), Indonesia and the Philippines (5% each). The number of scientific articles from those countries has increased by 13% per year, with the rate of increase being highest in Thailand and Malaysia, and lowest in Indonesia and the Philippines. At the country level, the correlation between knowledge economy index and scientific output was 0.94. Based on the relationship between scientific output and knowledge economy, we identified 4 clusters of countries: Singapore as the first group; Thailand and Malaysia in the second group; Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines in the third group; and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei in the fourth group. These data suggested that there was a strong relationship between scientific research and the degree of "knowledgization" of economy.
TL;DR: It is found that entrepreneurship is an (increasingly) autonomous, legitimate and cohesive (in)visible college, fine tuned through the increasing visibility of certain subject specialties (e.g., family business, innovation, technology and policy).
Abstract: Despite the vitality and dynamism that the field of entrepreneurship has experienced in the last decade, the issue of whether it comprises an effective network of (in)formal communication linkages among the most influential scholars within the area has yet to be examined in depth. This study follows a formal selection procedure to delimit the `relational environment' of the field of entrepreneurship and to analyze the existence and characterization of (in)visible college(s) based on a theoretically well-grounded framework, thus offering a comprehensive and up-to-date empirical analysis of entrepreneurship research. Based on more than a 1,000 papers published between 2005 and 2010 in seven core entrepreneurship journals and the corresponding (85,000) citations, we found that entrepreneurship is an (increasingly) autonomous, legitimate and cohesive (in)visible college, fine tuned through the increasing visibility of certain subject specialties (e.g., family business, innovation, technology and policy). Moreover, the rather dense formal links that characterize the entrepreneurship (in)visible college are accompanied by a reasonably solid network of informal relations maintained and sustained by the mobility of `stars' and highly influential scholars. The limited internationalization of the entrepreneurship community, reflected in the almost total absence of non-English-speaking authors/studies/outlets, stands as a major quest for the field.
TL;DR: A mixed model that combines different indicators to describe and predict key structural and dynamic features of emerging research areas shows that the indicators are indicative of emerging areas and they exhibit interesting temporal correlations.
Abstract: This study presents a mixed model that combines different indicators to describe and predict key structural and dynamic features of emerging research areas. Three indicators are combined: sudden increases in the frequency of specific words; the number and speed by which new authors are attracted to an emerging research area, and changes in the interdisciplinarity of cited references. The mixed model is applied to four emerging research areas: RNAi, Nano, h-Index, and Impact Factor research using papers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (1982---2009) and in Scientometrics (1978---2009). Results are compared in terms of strengths and temporal dynamics. Results show that the indicators are indicative of emerging areas and they exhibit interesting temporal correlations: new authors enter the area first, then the interdisciplinarity of paper references increases, then word bursts occur. All workflows are reported in a manner that supports replication and extension by others.
TL;DR: It is proposed that citation contexts, the text surrounding references in scientific papers, be analyzed in terms of an expanded notion of sentiment, defined to include attitudes and dispositions toward the cited work.
Abstract: It is proposed that citation contexts, the text surrounding references in scientific papers, be analyzed in terms of an expanded notion of sentiment, defined to include attitudes and dispositions toward the cited work. Maps of science at both the specialty and global levels are used as the basis of this analysis. Citation context samples are taken at these levels and contrasted for the appearance of cue word sets, analyzed with the aid of methods from corpus linguistics. Sentiments are shown to vary within a specialty and can be understood in terms of cognitive and social factors. Within-specialty and between-specialty co-citations are contrasted and in some cases suggest a correlation of sentiment with structural location. For example, the sentiment of "uncertainty" is important in interdisciplinary co-citation links, while "utility" is more prevalent within the specialty. Suggestions are made for linking sentiments to technical terms, and for developing sentiment "baselines" for all of science.
TL;DR: Rapid development in the number of China–US co-authored nanotechnology papers as well as structural changes in array of collaborative nanotechnology sub-fields are found and implications for both China and the US of this evolving relationship are discussed.
Abstract: This paper examines the rapid growth of China in the field of nanotechnology and the rise of collaboration between China and the US in this emerging domain. Chinese scientific papers in nanotechnology are analyzed to indicate overall trends, leading fields and the most prolific institutions. Patterns of China---US nanotechnology paper co-authorship are examined over the period 1990---2009, with an analysis of how these patterns have changed over time. The paper combines bibliometric analysis and science mapping. We find rapid development in the number of China---US co-authored nanotechnology papers as well as structural changes in array of collaborative nanotechnology sub-fields. Implications for both China and the US of this evolving relationship are discussed.
TL;DR: A method for Subject–Action–Object (SAO) network analysis of patents for technology trends identification by using the concept of function to solve the shortcoming of the keyword-based approach to identification of technology trends.
Abstract: This paper suggests a method for Subject---Action---Object (SAO) network analysis of patents for technology trends identification by using the concept of function. The proposed method solves the shortcoming of the keyword-based approach to identification of technology trends, i.e., that it cannot represent how technologies are used or for what purpose. The concept of function provides information on how a technology is used and how it interacts with other technologies; the keyword-based approach does not provide such information. The proposed method uses an SAO model and represents "key concept" instead of "key word". We present a procedure that formulates an SAO network by using SAO models extracted from patent documents, and a method that applies actor network theory to analyze technology implications of the SAO network. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the SAO network this paper presents a case study of patents related to Polymer Electrolyte Membrane technology in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells.
TL;DR: It is found that predicting the citation number from the coauthors number can be more reliable than predicting the coauthor number fromThe citation number.
Abstract: We obtained data of statistical significance to verify the intuitive impression that collaboration leads to higher impact. We selected eight scientific journals to analyze the correlations between the number of citations and the number of coauthors. For different journals, the single-authored articles always contained the lowest citations. The citations to those articles with fewer than five coauthors are lower than the average citations of the journal. We also provided a simple measurement to the value of authorship with regards to the increase number of citations. Compared to the citation distribution, similar but smaller fluctuations appeared in the coauthor distribution. Around 70% of the citations were accumulated in 30% of the papers, while 60% of the coauthors appeared in 40% of the papers. We find that predicting the citation number from the coauthor number can be more reliable than predicting the coauthor number from the citation number. For both citation distribution and coauthor distribution, the standard deviation is larger than the average value. We caution the use of such an unrepresentative average value. The average value can be biased significantly by extreme minority, and might not reflect the majority.
TL;DR: This study presents the evolutionary dynamics of multi level (i.e., individual, institutional and national) collaboration networks for exploring the emergence of collaborations in the research field of “steel structures” and finds that the average distance between countries about two and institutes five and for authors eight meaning that only about eight steps are necessary to get from one randomly chosen author to another.
Abstract: Several studies exist which use scientific literature for comparing scientific activities (e.g., productivity, and collaboration). In this study, using co-authorship data over the last 40 years, we present the evolutionary dynamics of multi level (i.e., individual, institutional and national) collaboration networks for exploring the emergence of collaborations in the research field of "steel structures". The collaboration network of scientists in the field has been analyzed using author affiliations extracted from Scopus between 1970 and 2009. We have studied collaboration distribution networks at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels for the 40 years. We compared and analyzed a number of properties of these networks (i.e., density, centrality measures, the giant component and clustering coefficient) for presenting a longitudinal analysis and statistical validation of the evolutionary dynamics of "steel structures" collaboration networks. At all levels, the scientific collaborations network structures were central considering the closeness centralization while betweenness and degree centralization were much lower. In general networks density, connectedness, centralization and clustering coefficient were highest in marco-level and decreasing as the network size grow to the lowest in micro-level. We also find that the average distance between countries about two and institutes five and for authors eight meaning that only about eight steps are necessary to get from one randomly chosen author to another.
TL;DR: It is found that knowledge production through collaborative research among sub-Saharan African countries is minimal and contributes only a small percentage when compared to collaboration between sub- Saharan African countries and their foreign counterparts.
Abstract: This paper examines co-authorship of research articles in Thomson Reuters citation indexes in order to assess knowledge co-production in selected sub-Saharan African countries. Two indicators, namely publications and citations, were analysed to establish the patterns of knowledge co-production and its scientific impact, respectively. The study found that knowledge production through collaborative research among sub-Saharan African countries is minimal and contributes only a small percentage when compared to collaboration between sub-Saharan African countries and their foreign counterparts. Similarly, the scientific impact of international collaboration was higher than that of continental collaboration. Countries belonging to the same geographic region contributed to each other's knowledge production more frequently than they did to the countries outside their region. It is recommended that, for knowledge co-production in sub-Saharan Africa to improve, various measures such as encouraging student and staff exchange, hosting more regional conferences and encouraging research networks need to be put in place.
TL;DR: A set of routines that allows to draw easily different maps of the research carried out in a scientific institution, using co-occurrence (of authors, keywords, institutions…) and bibliographic coupling can be built.
Abstract: We have developed a set of routines that allows to draw easily different maps of the research carried out in a scientific institution. Our toolkit uses OpenSource elements to analyze bibliometric data gathered from the Web Of Science. We take the example of our institution, ENS de Lyon, to show how different maps, using co-occurrence (of authors, keywords, institutions?) and bibliographic coupling can be built. These maps may become a valuable tool for discussing institutions' policies, as they offer different views on the institution at a global scale.
TL;DR: A new look at the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities to evaluate the performance of whole university systems is taken, with a clear picture emerges: at the aggregate level ARWU seems to be a very reliable one-dimensional scale.
Abstract: We take a new look at the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities to evaluate the performance of whole university systems We deal with system aggregates by means of averaging scores taken over a number of institutions from each higher education system according to the Gross Domestic Product of its country We treat the set of indicators (measures) at the country level as a scale, and investigate its reliability and dimensionality using appropriate statistical tools After a Principal Component Analysis is performed, a clear picture emerges: at the aggregate level ARWU seems to be a very reliable one-dimensional scale, with a first component that explains more than 72% of the variance of the sample under analysis The percentages of variance of the indicators explained by the first component do shed light on the fact that ARWU is in fact measuring the research quality (both at the individual and collective levels) of a university system When the second principal component is taken into account, the two principal components contribute to explain more than 90% of the variance The rotated solution facilitates the interpretation of the components and provides clear and interesting clustering information about the 32 higher education systems under analysis