Detection Of Emerging Research Fronts In Solar Cell Research

Science and technology (S&T) roadmaps are an attractive tool in R&D management, and have been widely used during the past decade. S&T roadmaps are typically constructed by gathering and stimulating expert's opinion, but roadmapping is time-consuming and subjective, and therefore computer-based approach is expected to supplement expert-based approach. In this paper, we proposed and demonstrated that the computer-based approach using citation network analysis can be used to depict technology trend, and build the first draft of S&T roadmaps. We perform a case study in solar cell research. We analyzed citation network of energy and solar cell research by clustering the network, visualized the overall structures, extracted emerging research domains there, and track emerging research domains in it by citation network analysis. The possibility and limitation of our approach to roadmapping was discussed. We compared our results by citation network analysis with the existing solar cell roadmap, and showed that citation-based approach can complement expert-based approach.