http://thomsonreuters.com/content/news_ideas/articles/science/indentifying-hot-spots-in-scientific-research

• 22 Apr 2013

Identifying Hot Spots in Scientific ResearchNew Science Watch report identifies the top 100 breakthrough fronts in scientific research

Did you know that there are leaps and bounds continuously being made in the world of scientific research? From solar cells to superconductors we present the top 100 breakthrough fronts for 2013 across 10 broad categories in the sciences and social sciences. These point to hot areas that may not otherwise be readily identified, even by the scientists and global research institutions at the center of the action. The Top 100 Research Fronts (RFs) report is the first in a series of efforts to reclaim—and better communicate—the value of our proprietary methodology in identifying and analyzing research fronts.

Highlights from the report include:

• Economics, Psychology, and other Social Sciences

  • Selected Front: Financial crisis, liquidity, and corporate governance

  • Focus is on the 2008 financial crisis noting the nations and institutions at the leading edge of research.

• Chemistry and Materials Science

  • Selected Front: Roll-to-roll processed polymer solar cells (Roll-to-roll is a key step for the mass production of solar cells)

  • Major spotlight on Frederik C. Krebs’s (Technical University of Denmark) contributions to field; collaborations with Danish firm Mekoprint A/S.

• Clinical Medicine

  • Selected Front: Acquired BRAF inhibitor resistance in metastatic melanom

  • Focus on the USA’s leading role in Acquired BRAF-inhibitor resistance (prolonging life in cancer patients). Section includes leading institutions, authors, as well as pharmaceutical companies who write and fund research in this front.

• Ecology and Environmental Sciences

  • Selected Front: Ocean acidification and marine ecosystems (Impact of fossil fuel burning on marine ecosystems)

  • Australia’s leadership role is highlighted and discussed.

  Predicting the Top 100 Breakthrough Fronts

  As part of our ongoing mission to track the world’s most significant scientific and scholarly literature, we survey patterns and groupings of how papers are cited—in particular, clusters of papers that are frequently cited together, or “co-cited.” When such groupings attain a certain level of activity and coherence (as deduced by algorithmic analysis), a research front is formed, with the co-cited papers serving as the front’s foundational “core”.

  The fronts provide an ongoing chronicle of how discrete fields of activity emerge, coalesce, grow (or, possibly, shrink and dissipate), and branch off from one another as they self-organize into even newer nodes of activity. Throughout this evolution, the foundations of each core—the main papers, authors, and institutions in each area—can be easily ascertained and monitored.

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