A Method of Identifying Key Research Directions

Subjects: Library Science，Information Science >> Library Science submitted time 2023-08-27 Cooperative journals: 《图书情报工作》

Deng Qiping Wang Xiaomei

Abstract： [Purpose/significance] The identification of key research directions (KRDs) is significant to the management of scientific research and the formulation of policy. Existing methods of quantitative analysis mainly used indicators based on novelty, growth and other characteristics to identify and recommend KRDs. This paper used the relationships of research directions further and identified KRDs from network topology and characteristic two dimensions. [Method/process] On the basis of the building of citation network of papers in a field, a large-scale network clustering algorithm was used to detect research directions, and the topic association network was built. Then, identification algorithms of important nodes in complex networks were used to identify KRDs from the dimension of network topology, and an index system of selecting KRDs was constructed by combining three indicators of characteristic dimension, including novelty index, growth index and H-index. [Result/conclusion] After an empirical analysis of the field of nanotechnology, with the experts' interpretation, the paper concluded that growth index, Gefura and weighted PageRank are more objective and stable. Finally, 208 KRDs were identified by synthetically using above three indicators.

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