Detecting emerging research fronts based on topological measures in citation networks of scientific publications

In this paper, we performed a comparative study in two research domains in order to develop a method of detecting emerging knowledge domains. The selected domains are research on gallium nitride (GaN) and research on complex networks, which represent recent examples of innovative research. We divided citation networks into clusters using the topological clustering method, tracked the positions of papers in each cluster, and visualized citation networks with characteristic terms for each cluster. Analyzing the clustering results with the average age and parent–children relationship of each cluster may be helpful in detecting emergence. In addition, topological measures, within-cluster degree z and participation coefficient P, succeeded in determining whether there are emerging knowledge clusters. There were at least two types of development of knowledge domains. One is incremental innovation as in GaN and the other is branching innovation as in complex networks. In the domains where incremental innovation occurs, papers changed their position to large z and large P. On the other hand, in the case of branching innovation, they moved to a position with large z and small P, because there is a new emerging cluster, and active research centers shift rapidly. Our results showed that topological measures are beneficial in detecting branching innovation in the citation network of scientific publications.