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Competing, complementary and co-existing paradigms in techno-scientific literature: A case study of Nanotechnology for engineering

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Abstract

Nanotechnology is a research field that has potential to drive the progress of mankind for the next few decades. Its application is found in every discipline, ranging from material science to space communication. Owing to its potential for ubiquity, and capability of replacing many general purpose technologies, co-existence of several paradigms are expected in nanotechnology. Flow Vergence (FV) gradient has been recently introduced as a metric to mine the network of scientific literature for detecting the paradigm shifts. In this paper, we have performed citation network analysis of scientific publications in nanotechnology from research area ‘engineering’ for identification of paradigms related to the same. Flow vergence gradient revealed 18 subnetworks that deal with 25 likely pivots of paradigm shifts. Major paradigm shifts can be found in the field of targeted drug delivery. Nanonetworks, a crossover of IT, BT and nanotechnology is the another interesting paradigm shift identified. An extended subnetwork analysis has been conducted to identify the competing or complementary nature of the emerging paradigms in the subnetworks. A framework for this has also been introduced. This analysis revealed that most of the paradigms in the targeted delivery are competing paradigms. Complementary paradigms are also identified in nano electronics and targeted drug delivery. Policy implications from this identification for various target groups are also discussed.

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Acknowledgements

This work used facility provided by ‘Scientometric lab’ (Order No. Pl.A1/Annual plan 16-17/Imp.plan/16 dtd. 29/11/2016), Department of Futures Studies, University of Kerala.

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  1. Department of Futures Studies, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, 695581, India

    Thara Prabhakaran, Hiran H. Lathabai & Susan George

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  1. Thara Prabhakaran
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Prabhakaran, T., Lathabai, H.H. & George, S. Competing, complementary and co-existing paradigms in techno-scientific literature: A case study of Nanotechnology for engineering. Scientometrics 118, 941–977 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03013-2

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