Research priorities as the problem of bibliometric studies

Abstract

Revealing research fronts and detecting research priorities are one of the most significant problems in the science of science and scientific policy due to the crucial importance when planning research. Bibliometric approaches are the main tool when detecting research trends and fronts providing the basis for further expertise of research priority. To date, different approaches have been developed for research trends and fronts detection including analysis of scholarly output, citation analysis, and content analysis. The most spread is citation analysis and its variants, i.e., direct citation analysis, co-citation analysis, and bibliographic coupling. The paper discusses the main features of each method; describes current issues of detecting research fronts and setting of research priorities. The authors conclude that bibliometric approaches for detecting research fronts and research priorities are objective, especially when combining different forms of bibliometric analyses. Bibliometrics seems to be the most promising approach due to its flexibility and capability to be rapidly adapted to a dynamic scientific environment and new publication models.