IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v115y2018i1d10.1007_s11192-018-2654-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An indicator of technical emergence

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen F. Carley

    (Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech
    Search Technology, Inc)

  • Nils C. Newman

    (Intelligent Information Services Corporation
    Search Technology, Inc)

  • Alan L. Porter

    (Search Technology, Inc
    Georgia Tech)

  • Jon G. Garner

    (Search Technology, Inc)

Abstract

Developing useful intelligence on scientific and technological emergence challenges those who would manage R&D portfolios, assess research programs, or manage innovation. Recently, the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity Foresight and Understanding from Scientific Exposition Program has explored means to detect emergence via text analyses. We have been involved in positing conceptual bases for emergence, framing candidate indicators, and devising implementations. We now present a software script to generate a family of Emergence Indicators for a topic of interest. This paper offers some background, then discusses the development of this script through iterative rounds of testing, and then offers example findings. Results point to promising and actionable intelligence for R&D decision-makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen F. Carley & Nils C. Newman & Alan L. Porter & Jon G. Garner, 2018. "An indicator of technical emergence," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 35-49, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:115:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-018-2654-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-018-2654-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-018-2654-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-018-2654-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lu An & Xia Lin & Chuanming Yu & Xinwen Zhang, 2015. "Measuring and visualizing the contributions of Chinese and American LIS research institutions to emerging themes and salient themes," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 105(3), pages 1605-1634, December.
    2. Sanjay K. Arora & Alan L. Porter & Jan Youtie & Philip Shapira, 2013. "Capturing new developments in an emerging technology: an updated search strategy for identifying nanotechnology research outputs," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(1), pages 351-370, April.
    3. Stephen F. Carley & Nils C. Newman & Alan L. Porter & Jon G. Garner, 2017. "A measure of staying power: Is the persistence of emergent concepts more significantly influenced by technical domain or scale?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 2077-2087, June.
    4. Small, Henry & Boyack, Kevin W. & Klavans, Richard, 2014. "Identifying emerging topics in science and technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1450-1467.
    5. Rotolo, Daniele & Hicks, Diana & Martin, Ben R., 2015. "What is an emerging technology?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1827-1843.
    6. Zhang, Yi & Porter, Alan L. & Hu, Zhengyin & Guo, Ying & Newman, Nils C., 2014. "“Term clumping” for technical intelligence: A case study on dye-sensitized solar cells," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 26-39.
    7. Yi Zhang & Xiao Zhou & Alan L. Porter & Jose M. Vicente Gomila & An Yan, 2014. "Triple Helix innovation in China’s dye-sensitized solar cell industry: hybrid methods with semantic TRIZ and technology roadmapping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 99(1), pages 55-75, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Porter, Alan L. & Garner, Jon & Carley, Stephen F. & Newman, Nils C., 2019. "Emergence scoring to identify frontier R&D topics and key players," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 628-643.
    2. Porter, Alan L. & Chiavetta, Denise & Newman, Nils C., 2020. "Measuring tech emergence: A contest," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    3. Zhang, Yi & Huang, Ying & Porter, Alan L. & Zhang, Guangquan & Lu, Jie, 2019. "Discovering and forecasting interactions in big data research: A learning-enhanced bibliometric study," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 795-807.
    4. Stephen F. Carley & Nils C. Newman & Alan L. Porter & Jon G. Garner, 2017. "A measure of staying power: Is the persistence of emergent concepts more significantly influenced by technical domain or scale?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 2077-2087, June.
    5. Xiaoyu Liu & Alan L. Porter, 2020. "A 3-dimensional analysis for evaluating technology emergence indicators," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(1), pages 27-55, July.
    6. Xiao Zhou & Lu Huang & Yi Zhang & Miaomiao Yu, 2019. "A hybrid approach to detecting technological recombination based on text mining and patent network analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 121(2), pages 699-737, November.
    7. Serhat Burmaoglu & Olivier Sartenaer & Alan Porter & Munan Li, 2019. "Analysing the theoretical roots of technology emergence: an evolutionary perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(1), pages 97-118, April.
    8. Kwon, Seokbeom & Liu, Xiaoyu & Porter, Alan L. & Youtie, Jan, 2019. "Research addressing emerging technological ideas has greater scientific impact," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    9. Zhang, Yi & Zhang, Guangquan & Chen, Hongshu & Porter, Alan L. & Zhu, Donghua & Lu, Jie, 2016. "Topic analysis and forecasting for science, technology and innovation: Methodology with a case study focusing on big data research," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 179-191.
    10. Zhang, Yi & Wu, Mengjia & Miao, Wen & Huang, Lu & Lu, Jie, 2021. "Bi-layer network analytics: A methodology for characterizing emerging general-purpose technologies," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
    11. Woo, Seokkyun & Youtie, Jan & Ott, Ingrid & Scheu, Fenja, 2021. "Understanding the long-term emergence of autonomous vehicles technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    12. Huang, Lu & Chen, Xiang & Ni, Xingxing & Liu, Jiarun & Cao, Xiaoli & Wang, Changtian, 2021. "Tracking the dynamics of co-word networks for emerging topic identification," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    13. Yuan Zhou & Heng Lin & Yufei Liu & Wei Ding, 2019. "A novel method to identify emerging technologies using a semi-supervised topic clustering model: a case of 3D printing industry," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 120(1), pages 167-185, July.
    14. Wang, Zhinan & Porter, Alan L. & Wang, Xuefeng & Carley, Stephen, 2019. "An approach to identify emergent topics of technological convergence: A case study for 3D printing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 723-732.
    15. Lee, Changyong & Kwon, Ohjin & Kim, Myeongjung & Kwon, Daeil, 2018. "Early identification of emerging technologies: A machine learning approach using multiple patent indicators," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 291-303.
    16. Joung, Junegak & Kim, Kwangsoo, 2017. "Monitoring emerging technologies for technology planning using technical keyword based analysis from patent data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 281-292.
    17. Philip Shapira & Seokbeom Kwon & Jan Youtie, 2017. "Tracking the emergence of synthetic biology," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(3), pages 1439-1469, September.
    18. Gao, Qiang & Liang, Zhentao & Wang, Ping & Hou, Jingrui & Chen, Xiuxiu & Liu, Manman, 2021. "Potential index: Revealing the future impact of research topics based on current knowledge networks," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    19. Burmaoglu, Serhat & Sartenaer, Olivier & Porter, Alan, 2019. "Conceptual definition of technology emergence: A long journey from philosophy of science to science policy," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Peter Sjögårde & Fereshteh Didegah, 2022. "The association between topic growth and citation impact of research publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(4), pages 1903-1921, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:115:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-018-2654-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.