Shibata, N; et al Comparative Study on Methods of Detecting Research Fronts Using Different Types of Citation JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, 60 (3): 571-580 MAR 2009

[Eugene Garfield]

E-mail Address: shibata at biz-model.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp; kaji at biz-model.t.u-
tokyo.ac.jp; takeda at biz-model.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp; matsushima at iijmio-mail.jp 

Author(s): Shibata, N (Shibata, Naoki); Kajikawa, Y (Kajikawa, Yuya); 
Takeda, Y (Takeda, Yoshiyuki); Matsushima, K (Matsushima, Katsumori) 

Title: Comparative Study on Methods of Detecting Research Fronts Using 
Different Types of Citation 

Source: JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND 
TECHNOLOGY, 60 (3): 571-580 MAR 2009 

Language: English 

Document Type: Article 

KeyWords Plus: SCIENTIFIC PAPERS; NETWORKS; SCIENCE; COCITATION; 
INTERDISCIPLINARITY; SPECIALTIES; RETRIEVAL; DOCUMENTS; JOURNALS; TRACKING 

Abstract: In this article, we performed a comparative study to investigate 
the performance of methods for detecting emerging research fronts. Three 
types of citation network, co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and direct 
citation, were tested in three research domains, gallium nitride (GaN), 
complex network (CNW), and carbon nanotube (CNT). Three types of citation 
network were constructed for each research domain, and the papers in those 
domains were divided into clusters to detect the research front. We 
evaluated the performance of each type of citation network in detecting a 
research front by using the following measures of papers in the cluster: 
visibility, measured by normalized cluster size, speed, measured by 
average publication year, and topological relevance, measured by density. 
Direct citation, which could detect large and young emerging clusters 
earlier, shows the best performance in detecting a research front, and co-
citation shows the worst. Additionally, in direct citation networks, the 
clustering coefficient was the largest, which suggests that the content 
similarity of papers connected by direct citations is the greatest and 
that direct citation networks have the least risk of missing emerging 
research domains because core papers are included in the largest 
component. 

Addresses: [Shibata, Naoki; Kajikawa, Yuya; Takeda, Yoshiyuki; Matsushima, 
Katsumori] Univ Tokyo, Inst Engn Innovat, Sch Engn, Bunkyo Ku, Tokyo 
1138656, Japan 

Reprint Address: Shibata, N, Univ Tokyo, Inst Engn Innovat, Sch Engn, 
Bunkyo Ku, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Tokyo 1138656, Japan. 

E-mail Address: shibata at biz-model.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp; kaji at biz-model.t.u-
tokyo.ac.jp; takeda at biz-model.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp; matsushima at iijmio-mail.jp 

Cited Reference Count: 26 

Times Cited: 0 

Publisher: JOHN WILEY & SONS INC 

Publisher Address: 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN, NJ 07030 USA 

ISSN: 1532-2882 

DOI: 10.1002/asi.20994 

29-char Source Abbrev.: J AM SOC INF SCI TECHNOL 

ISO Source Abbrev.: J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 

Source Item Page Count: 10 

Subject Category: Computer Science, Information Systems; Information 
Science & Library Science 

ISI Document Delivery No.: 415LK 

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