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Journal of Nanoparticle Research
Published in: Journal of Nanoparticle Research 9/2019

01-09-2019 | Perspectives

Updating a search strategy to track emerging nanotechnologies

Authors: Zhinan Wang, Alan L. Porter, Seokbeom Kwon, Jan Youtie, Philip Shapira, Stephen F. Carley, Xiaoyu Liu

Published in: Journal of Nanoparticle Research | Issue 9/2019

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Abstract

Identifying nanoscience and nanotechnology (nano) publications in global databases is essential to profile and track research in this ever-changing field. Crafting an effective search query to retrieve as many nano-related publications as feasible, while excluding irrelevant publications, is challenging. This paper reports on a major update to a well-established nano-search routine. We offer a nine-module search that significantly augments retrieval from the Web of Science (WoS) compared with use of the WoS Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Category (Nano-WC). We compare search results, showing modular overlaps with a “Nano*” search, and among the modules. Analyzing the resulting set of 2.2 million nano-publication abstract records affirms the tremendous multidisciplinary reach of nano-related research and the continued strong growth of the field. By country, China has enhanced its role as the world’s leading producer of nano-publications, with slower growth for the USA. Relatively high nano-publication growth is also evident for India, Iran, and several other emerging economies. Analyses of nano-publications for 2013–2017 identify more than 20 emerging topics, primarily in the energy and two-dimensional material domains that are apt to be actively researched in the coming few years.
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Appendix
Available only for authorised users
Footnotes
2
Zhu et al. (2017) search terms include biomotor, molecular sensor, quantum computing, quantum effect, artificial photosynthes, atom thick layer, biophotonics, cellulose fiber or tube, dendrimers, DNA computing or assembling, molecular system, optoelectronic, optogenetic, proteomic, spintronic, and supramolecul (we include supramolecul* and quantum* as contingent terms for several of our search modules).
 
3
The modules incorporate a few modest refinements:
a.
Module 5 is now module 4.
 
b.
Replace microscopy by microscop* in two places—“single molecule microscop*” and “magnetic force microscop*” (adding 11 records); replacing “scanning probe microscop*” by “Probe microscop*”.
 
c.
Remove X-ray photoelectron* from module 4 based on examination of sample records of variations of the term (e.g., XPS)
 
d.
Refine variations of enhanced Raman scattering/spectroscopy.
 
e.
Add “SAXS” (the acronym for “small angle x-ray scattering”).
 
f.
Remove “NEMS” from module 7, retaining it in module 6;
 
g.
Relocate a few microscopy terms to other modules to tune contingencies;
 
h.
Remove one journal—“Materials Science Engineering C*”—as it showed minimal nano-hits (1/20 in a test sample) after removal of records captured by the rest of the nano-search.
 
 
4
We checked ~ 135 candidate terms, declining to include most. This was based on search comparisons and inspection of 20-record samples drawn from search results using the given term(s). For example., some terms judged as not adding sufficient nano-coverage after consideration of alternative contingencies and exclusion of nano* include STEM, FIB, UPS, and SIMS.
 
5
WoS Helpdesk notes factors considered in assigning journals or other sources to WCs: journal subject matter and scope, author and editorial board affiliations, funding acknowledgements, cited and citing relationships to other journals, journal sponsor, and journal’s categorizations in other bibliographic databases.
 
6
The new journals were identified using time span 2015–2017. We exclude those journals captured by the original module 8 (Arora et al. (2013)). The nine new journals are Applied Nanoscience, E-Journal of Surface Science and Nanotechnology, European Journal of Nanomedicine, IEEE Nanotechnology Magazine, International Journal of Nano Dimension, International Journal of Nanoscience, International Nano Letters, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part N-Journal of Nanomaterials Nanoengineering and Nanosystems, and Small Methods.
 
7
We have some records downloaded earlier and some currently in the augmented dataset. When we compared WC distribution, we found that for those earlier downloaded records, there are a few of them whose WC has minor changes; for example, WC for “JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS” was changed from “Engineering, Environmental; Engineering, Civil; Environmental Sciences” to “Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences”; WC for “JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS” was changed from “Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Nuclear Science & Technology; Mining & Mineral Processing” to “Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Nuclear Science & Technology.”
 
8
In the Georgia Tech interface to WoS, under “More Settings,” we check these 8 databases: Science Citation Index Expanded, 1900-present (SCI-Expanded); Social Sciences Citation Index, 1900-present (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975-present (A&HCI); Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Science, 1990-present (CPCI-S); Conference Proceedings Citation Index—Social Science & Humanities (CPCI-SSH), 1990-present; Book Citation Index—Science, 2005-present (BKCI-S); Book Citation Index—Social Sciences & Humanities, 2005-present (BKCI-SSH); and Emerging Sources Citation Index—1985-present (ESCI). We do not include the two chemical indexes, as all records in testing several of our nano-modules are fully included in the eight Core Collection databases.
 
9
As per footnote 7, not all the component databases extend back all the way to 1991. We were pleased to learn that WoSCs have been assigned to nearly all sources, extending well beyond SCI and SSCI.
 
10
As we advanced our search formulation, the 20-record sampling was adjusted. For initial term screening, as noted, we examined search results for the target term, with and without contingencies—not screening out records that would also be captured by nano* or other search modules. By counting records that included such other terms, we got a sense of the target term’s relatedness to nano-research. Later, in tuning the search modules in conjunction with each other, we did further sample checks during which we excluded nano*, particularly. This makes for more strenuous checks. Hence, we do not assert one given sampling threshold for inclusion of a term.
 
11
We note that conduct of the search queries yields ~ 2.3 million records prior to removal of nano-noise terms and duplicates, which reduces the total to ~ 2.2 million. To check, we ran our nano-noise removal routine on the 1339 records from module nos. 2–8 that application of the 76 “non-nano WC” set would remove. Only 13 intersect with our nano-noise removal routine. We determine not to remove these 1339 records (0.06% of 2.2 million nano-records) in favor of search parsimony.
 
12
Using VantagePoint’s list cleanup (fuzzy matching) routine and Organization Names.fuz (ignore department), results were checked for organizations showing over 400 nano-publications for 2017. This was saved as a thesaurus and applied, as well, to the 2007 and 2012 data. So, cleaning is not fully vetted, but, for example, this consolidates 44,043 down to 34,074 organizations for 2017. Results should be treated as estimates.
 
13
We opened just the necessary fields in the VantagePoint data file, minimized memory requirements, and opted for computers with relatively high performance. Some analyses still required hours.
 
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Metadata
Title
Updating a search strategy to track emerging nanotechnologies
Authors
Zhinan Wang
Alan L. Porter
Seokbeom Kwon
Jan Youtie
Philip Shapira
Stephen F. Carley
Xiaoyu Liu
Publication date
01-09-2019
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Journal of Nanoparticle Research / Issue 9/2019
Print ISSN: 1388-0764
Electronic ISSN: 1572-896X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-019-4627-x

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