Transient and continuant authors in a research field: The case of terrorism

The issue of research continuance in a scientific discipline was analyzed and applied to the field of terrorism. The growing amount of literature in this field is produced mostly by one-timers who “visit” the field, contribute one or two articles, and then move to another subject area. This research pattern does not contribute to the regularity and constancy of publication by which a scientific discipline is formed and theories and paradigms of the field are created. This study observed the research continuance and transience of scientific publications in terrorism by using obtainable “most prolific terrorism authors” lists at different points in time. These lists designed by several terrorism researchers, presented a few researchers who contributed to the field continuously and many others whose main research interest lay in another discipline. The four lists observed included authors who were continuants, transients, new-comers, and terminators (who left the field). The lack of continuous, full-time research in a research field is typical of many disciplines, but the influence of this research pattern on a field’s growth and stability is different for older, established disciplines than for new and formative fields of study. With in the former, intellectual mobility could contribute to the rise of new topics and probably enrich the particular scientific field; with the latter, by contrast, it could hamper the formation and growth of the field.     

Towards a multipolar science world: trends and impact

This paper brings together recent statistical evidence on international (co-)publications and (foreign) PhD-students and scholars to document shifts in geographic sources of scientific production and the impact this has on flows of scientific talent and partnering for scientific collaboration. The evidence demonstrates that despite the continued dominance of the US and the increasing importance of the EU, the TRIAD is in relative decline. Other geographic sources of science outside the TRIAD are rising, both in quantity, but also, although still to a lesser extent, in quality. Especially China drives this non-TRIAD growth. This catching-up of non-TRIAD countries drives a slow but real process of global convergence. It nevertheless leaves a less equal non-TRIAD science community, as the growth of China, is not matched by other non-TRIAD countries. Despite the rise of China’s own scientific production, and the increasing return flows of overseas students and scholars, the outward flows of Asian talents have not diminished over time. The data suggest a high correlation between the patterns of international mobility of scientists and the patterns of international collaborations. The large and stable flow of Chinese human capital into the US forms the basis on which stable international US-Chinese scientific networks are built. With the EU lacking this Chinese human capital circulation, it is more difficult to build up similar strong and stable networks.     

Bibliometrics of a controversial scientific literature: Polywater research, 1962-1974

Summary This study examines the bibliometrics of the controversial scientific literature of Polywater research, focusing on publication types (books, journal publications, conference proceedings, and technical reports). Publication (P) frequency is used to measure publication “shape' or pattern and output, citations per publication (CPP) for impact, author self-citations (SC) and uncited publications (UP) for their effect on P and CPP. Findings show an epidemic publication pattern, journal publications with the highest P, books with the highest CPP, and insignificant SC and UP. Comparisons to several non-controversial scientific literatures suggest that these findings may be common to other controversial scientific literatures.     

Interdisciplinarity and the intellectual base of literature studies: citation analysis of highly cited monographs

This article studies interdisciplinarity and the intellectual base of 34 literature journals using citation data from Web of Science. Data from two time periods, 1978–1987 and 1998–2007 were compared to reveal changes in the interdisciplinary citing of monographs. The study extends the analysis to non-source publications; using the classification of monographs to show changes in the intellectual base. There is support for increased interdisciplinary citing of sources, especially to the social sciences, and changes in the intellectual base reflect this. The results are explained using theories on the intellectual and social organization of scientific fields and the use of bibliometric methods on the humanities is discussed. The article demonstrates how citation analysis can provide insights into the communication patterns and intellectual structure of scholarly fields in the arts and humanities.     

How to identify emerging research fields using scientometrics: An example in the field of Information Security

In the highly competitive world, there has been a concomitant increase in the need for the research and planning methodology, which can perform an advanced assessment of technological opportunities and an early perception of threats and possibilities of the emerging technology according to the nation’s economic and social status. This research is aiming to provide indicators and visualization methods to measure the latest research trend and aspect underlying scientific and technological documents to researchers and policy planners using “co-word analysis”. Information Security field is a highly prospective market value. In this paper, we presented an analysis Information Security. Co-word analysis was employed to reveal patterns and trends in the Information Security fields by measuring the association strength of terms representatives of relevant publications or other texts produced in the Information Security field. Data were collected from SCI and the critical keywords could be extracted from the author keywords. These extracted keywords were further standardized. In order to trace the dynamic changes in the Information Security field, we presented a variety of technology mapping. The results showed that the Information Security field has some established research theme and also rapidly transforms to embrace new themes.     

Implicit objective integration for sensitivity analysis in non-linear solid mechanics

Incrementally objective integration schemes are proposed for the accurate and efficient determination of design sensitivity coefficients (DSCs) for solid mechanics problems with both material and geometrical non-linearities. The derivation of these schemes are based on the direct differentiation of objective schemes that are used in stress analysis for problems of this class. Two widely used objective stress rates, the Jaumann rate and the Green–Naghdi rate, are considered here within the same setting with only minor changes of the integration scheme. Numerical results are presented for a simple shear problem with different material constitutive laws, including a hypoelastic model and a unified isotropic viscoplastic model, for these two objective rates. The numerical results are compared with analytical solutions or direct integration solutions. The close agreement among these solutions demonstrates the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme.     

Forgetting and the Ageing of Scientific Publications

In this paper, I will argue that the process of ageing in scientific publications on the one hand, and the process of obsolescence and forgetting to which all kinds of phenomena, people and events are exposed on the other, develop with the same speed. Whereas in the literature on the subject it is stated that the speed of the ageing of scientific literature is exponential, it is shown that the decay from 'age 4' is best described by an inverse function, as was already brought to light in reference to forgetting of people and events as measured by the frequencies of calendar years in large text corpora. The empirical bases are SCI data as presented by Nakamoto and various files of reference data collected by the author. It is shown that the decay curve of the reference frequencies from 'age 4' backwards is independent of time.     

The scientific impact and partner selection in collaborative research at Korean universities

This study seeks to bridge the gap between scientometrics literature on scientific collaboration and science and technology management literature on partner selection by linking scientists’ collaborator preferences to the marginal advantage in citation impact. The 1981–2010 South Korea NCR (National Citation Report), a subset of the Web of Science that includes 297,658 scholarly articles, was used for this research. We found that, during this period, multi-author scientific articles increasingly dominated single-author articles: multi-university collaboration grew significantly; and the numbers of research publications produced by teams working within a single institution or by a single author diminished. This study also demonstrated that multi-university collaboration produces higher-impact articles when it includes “Research Universities,” that is, top-tier university schools. We also found that elite universities experienced impact degradation of their scientific results when they collaborated with lower-tier institutions, whereas their lower-tier partners gained impact benefits from the collaboration. Finally, our research revealed that Korean universities are unlikely to work with other universities in the same tier. This propensity for cross-tier collaboration can be interpreted as strategic partner selection by lower-tier schools seeking marginal advantage in citation impact.     

A study of scientometric methods to identify emerging technologies via modeling of milestones

This work examines a scientometric model that tracks the emergence of an identified technology from initial discovery (via original scientific and conference literature), through critical discoveries (via original scientific, conference literature and patents), transitioning through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) and ultimately on to commercial application. During the period of innovation and technology transfer, the impact of scholarly works, patents and on-line web news sources are identified. As trends develop, currency of citations, collaboration indicators, and on-line news patterns are identified. The combinations of four distinct and separate searchable on-line networked sources (i.e., scholarly publications and citation, patents, news archives, and on-line mapping networks) are assembled to become one collective network (a dataset for analysis of relations). This established network becomes the basis from which to quickly analyze the temporal flow of activity (searchable events) for the example subject domain we investigated.     

Collaborative research in Spain in the field of pharmacy and pharmacology

Collaborative research in Spain in the field of pharmacology is studied. Co-authored papers in periodicals were one of the indicators used to quantify collaborative research results. Through Spanish publications of pharmacologists, collaborations between different institutions in the same city are mostly detected. Through foreign papers quite different networks were found, both amongst Spanish cities and with institutions in other countries. In case of Spanish pharmaceutical industry questionnaires were used to determine their links with other institutions, mostly through research projects.     

University patenting activities and their link to the quantity and quality of scientific publications

Integrating data from three independent data sources––USPTO patenting data, Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and the Times Higher Education Supplement’s World University Ranking (WUR), we examine the possible link between patenting output and the quantity and quality of scientific publications among 281 leading universities world-wide. We found that patenting by these universities, as measured by patents granted by the USPTO, has grown consistently faster than overall US patenting over 1977–2000, although it has grown more slowly over the last 5 years (2000–2005). Moreover, since the mid-1990s, patenting growth has been faster among universities outside North America than among those within North America. We also found that the patenting output of the universities over 2003–2005 is significantly correlated with the quantity and quality of their scientific publications. However, significant regional variations are found: for universities in North America, both the quantity and quality of scientific publications matter, but for European and Australian/NZ universities, only the quantity of publications matter, while for other universities outside North America and Europe/Australia/NZ, only quality of publications matter. We found similar findings when using EPO patenting data instead of USPTO data. Additionally, for USPTO data only, the degree of internationalization of faculty members is found to reduce patenting performance among North American universities, but to increase that of universities outside North America. Plausible explanations for these empirical observations and implications for future research are discussed.     

Forschungskonzeptionen, Prioritäten und Patente

The significance of Warburg’s work for the transformation of concepts in the investigation of vitamins is stressed, and the different investigative approaches of the competing groups are made clear. The grounds for the controversy carried out in their scientific publications, between Paul Karrer and Warburg on the one side, and Richard Kuhn on the other side, are fully examined, using the example of vitamin B₂. A second level of discussion that remained hidden from behind the public scientific debate is analysed: the prioriy dispute between the savants was connected with the interests of the chemical industry.      

System Architecture and Key Technologies of Network Security Situation Awareness System YHSAS

Network Security Situation Awareness System YHSAS acquires, understands and displays the security factors which cause changes of network situation, and predicts the future development trend of these security factors. YHSAS is developed for national backbone network, large network operators, large enterprises and other large-scale network. This paper describes its architecture and key technologies: Network Security Oriented Total Factor Information Collection and High-Dimensional Vector Space Analysis, Knowledge Representation and Management of Super Large-Scale Network Security, Multi-Level, Multi-Granularity and Multi-Dimensional Network Security Index Construction Method, Multi-Mode and Multi-Granularity Network Security Situation Prediction Technology, and so on. The performance tests show that YHSAS has high real-time performance and accuracy in security situation analysis and trend prediction. The system meets the demands of analysis and prediction for large-scale network security situation.     

荧光水凝胶在信息防伪中的研究进展

目的 概述荧光水凝胶在防伪方面的研究情况,挖掘其作为新型防伪器件的应用潜能。方法 根据引入的荧光发射源类型不同进行分类,依次从制备、功能响应机理、应用3个方面综述荧光水凝胶的研究进展。查阅大量相关的文献,对荧光水凝胶在信息防伪领域的最新进展进行归纳与总结。结果 荧光水凝胶根据引入的荧光发射源不同分为6类：碳点、镧系元素、有机荧光剂、聚集诱导染料、多个发射源和其他类型。通过调节尺寸和颜色的变化,实现加密/解密过程,提高了信息安全级别。结论 荧光水凝胶是一种具有独特刺激响应性的功能材料,在信息安全领域的深入探究具有重大意义。     

Characterizing intellectual spaces between science and technology

The paper presents a methodology for studying the interactions between science and technology. Our approach rests mostly on patent citation and co-word analysis. In particular, this study aims to delineate intellectual spaces in thin-film technology in terms of science/technology interaction. The universe of thin-film patents can be viewed as the macro-level and starting point of our analysis. Applying a bottom-up approach, intellectual spaces at the micro-level are defined by tracing prominent concepts in publications, patents, and their citations of scientific literature. In another step, co-word analysis is used to generate meso-level topics and sub-topics. Overlapping structures and specificities that emerge are explored in the light of theoretical understanding of science-technology interactions. In particular, one can distinguish prominent concepts among patent citations that either co-occur in both thin-film publications and patents or reach out to one of the two sides. Future research may address the question to what extent one can interpret directionality into this.     

The extreme case of terrorism: a scientometric analysis

How has the terrorism affected the research process and findings? The author tries to answer to this question through an exploratory analysis of the impact of these tragic events on the research outputs of scientists, institutions and countries. In particular, this report provides a wide range of scientometric data related to terrorism studies over the world during the two decades from 1991 to 2011. After the September 11, 2001 events (9/11) in the United States, the concerned academicians have responded in a way that they started producing an increasing number of research publications, as if they were under the influence of some kind of a driving force, stimulating the overall academic production linked to this tragic event. However, after this trend has reached its peak in 2002, that driving force has visibly weakened, and since the mid 2000’s, the number of research publication in the field of terrorism studies has steadily decreased. Nonetheless, the number of terrorist events per year, along with the property damage and fatality rate, has continuously increased over the observed lapse of time. Using these results as a backdrop, in this paper is argued that the field of terrorism research should be explored from a critical and multi-cultural perspective, and that all scientific researchers should remain objective, for scientific research is to be independent from political systems, its contingent events in any form, and the transitory historical circumstances.     

The citation advantage of foreign language references for Chinese social science papers

Contemporary scientific exchanges are international, yet language continues to be a persistent barrier to scientific communication, particularly for non-native English-speaking scholars. Since the ability to absorb knowledge has a strong impact on how researchers create new scientific knowledge, comprehensive access to and understanding of both domestic and international scientific publications is essential for scientific performance. This study explores the effect of absorbed knowledge on research impact by analyzing the relationship between the language diversity of cited references and the number of citations received by the citing paper. Chinese social sciences are taken as the research object, and the data, 950,302 papers published between 1998 and 2013 with 8,151,327 cited references, were collected from the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index. Results show that there is a stark increase in the consumption of foreign language material within the Chinese social science community, and English material accounts for the vast majority of this consumption. Papers with foreign language references receive significantly more citations than those without, and the citation advantage of these internationalized work holds when we control for characteristics of the citing papers, such as the discipline, prestige of journal, prestige of institution, and scientific collaboration. However, the citation advantage has decreased from 1998 to 2008, largely as an artifact of the increased number of papers citing foreign language material. After 2008, however, the decline of the citation advantage subsided and became relatively stable, which suggests that incorporating foreign language literature continues to increase scientific impact, even as the scientific community itself becomes increasingly international. However, internationalization is not without concerns: the work closes with a discussion of the potential problems associated with the lack of linguistic diversity in scientific communication.

     

Does cumulative advantage affect collective learning in science? An agent-based simulation

Agent-based simulation can model simple micro-level mechanisms capable of generating macro-level patterns, such as frequency distributions and network structures found in bibliometric data. Agent-based simulations of organisational learning have provided analogies for collective problem solving by boundedly rational agents employing heuristics. This paper brings these two areas together in one model of knowledge seeking through scientific publication. It describes a computer simulation in which academic papers are generated with authors, references, contents, and an extrinsic value, and must pass through peer review to become published. We demonstrate that the model can fit bibliometric data for a token journal, Research Policy. Different practices for generating authors and references produce different distributions of papers per author and citations per paper, including the scale-free distributions typical of cumulative advantage processes. We also demonstrate the model’s ability to simulate collective learning or problem solving, for which we use Kauffman’s NK fitness landscape. The model provides evidence that those practices leading to cumulative advantage in citations, that is, papers with many citations becoming even more cited, do not improve scientists’ ability to find good solutions to scientific problems, compared to those practices that ignore past citations. By contrast, what does make a difference is referring only to publications that have successfully passed peer review. Citation practice is one of many issues that a simulation model of science can address when the data-rich literature on scientometrics is connected to the analogy-rich literature on organisations and heuristic search.     

An analysis of Malaysian retracted papers: Misconduct or mistakes?

Retracted publications are a crucial, yet overlooked, issue in the scientific community. The purpose of this study was to analyze the prevalence, characteristics and reasons of Malaysian retracted papers. The Web of Science and Scopus databases were queried to identify Malaysian retracted publications. Available versions of original articles and publication notices were accessed from journal websites. The publications were assessed for various characteristics, including reason for retraction, based on the Committee on Publication Ethics guidelines, and the authority calling for the retractions. From 2009 to June 2017, 125 Malaysian publications comprising (33 journal articles and 92 conference papers) were retracted. There was a spike in the prevalence of retracted articles in 2010 and 2012 with 42 articles (33.6%) and 41 articles (32.8%) respectively from the 125 retracted articles. The mean time from electronic publication to retraction was 1 year. There is no significant relationship between a journal quartile and the mean number of months to retraction (P = 0.842). The reason for retraction for conference papers was specified as “violation of publication principle”. Journal articles were retracted mainly for duplicate publication, plagiarism, compromised peer review process, and self-plagiarism. Most retracted articles do not contain flawed data; and only 2 retracted articles have been accused of scientific mistakes. The study concludes that retractions were mostly due to the authors misconduct. Despite the increases, the proportion of published scholarly literature affected by retraction remains very small, indicating that retraction represents an uncommon, yet potentially increasing and incipient, issue within Malaysian papers, which publishers as well as editors may have consistently and sufficiently addressed.     

Patents: A unique source for scientific technical information in chemistry related industry?

A study was done to find the source of first publication and the number of non-patent publications from those whose first publication is in patent literature. Patent information is not always used as source for scientific technical information; however information disclosed in patents does not always appear in non-patent literature later. The latest studies published on the uniqueness of information disclosed in patents were Liebesny [Liebesny F et al. The scientific and technical information contained in patent specifications. The extent and time factors of its publication in other forms of literature. Inform Scientist 1974;8(4):165–77 [Reprint]] and Terapane [Terapane JF. A unique source of information. Chemtech 1978;8:272–76]. This study was undertaken to have current data on what we are missing when patent information is not used in the area of chemistry information. Looking at a sample of substance information reported in both patent and journal literature represented in the CAS databases suggests that a significant amount of this information does appear in patents before it is reported elsewhere; in some cases the disclosure in patents may truly be the only report.