Research Fronts and Areal Density of Bibliographically Coupled Publications

This article proposes a method to detect and visualize research fronts within a broader research field. A research front is defined as a grouping of publications of a research issue using the same knowledge base in a broader context. The broader context is defined by a field like battery research or casting or tribology, the knowledge base is defined by references. Some publications report about the usage of keywords, co citations or bibliographic coupling to detect research fronts. In this work agglomeration of bibliographic coupled publications with a common knowledge base are identified and graphically represented with a density function of publications per area unit. The knowledge base becomes visible if publications with similar vectors of common citations are associated. All bibliographic coupled publications are positioned on a map of points that is generated by a spring model. The publications positioned in a two dimensional space form areas of different density of points per area unit. The space dependent density is calculated with a digital grid. The density function of papers per area unit is visualized in a three dimensional plot. Research fronts become visible and can be quantified. Die proposed methodology is demonstrated in the case of battery research.