A Delineating Procedure to Retrieve Relevant Research Areas on Nanocellulose

Advances concerning publication-level classification system have been demonstrated striking results by dealing properly with emergent, complex and interdisciplinary research areas, such as nanotechnology and nanocellulose. However, less attention has been paid to propose a delineation procedure using specific subjects and understand how it could provide interesting regards about it. This study aimed at proposing a delineation procedure to retrieve relevant research areas addressed to nanocellulose using the research areas clustered by the CWTS Web of Science Publication-level Classification System. The procedure involved an iterative process, which includes developing and cleaning set of core publication regarding the subject and analysis of which cluster they might be associated. Nanocellulose was selected as the subject of study. A discussion about each step of the procedure was also provided. The proposed delineation procedure enabled to retrieve relevant publications from research areas involving nanocellulose. Twelve research topics were identified, mapped and associated with current research challenges on nanocellulose. Conference Topic Methods and techniques Introduction In recent years, bibliometrics has been used often to monitor and quantitatively assess scientific fields within the context of science policy and research management (Moed, Glänzel, & Schmoch, 2004; Okubo, 1997; Raan, 2014). Partly, it is a consequence of the increased use of Internet since the early 1990s and the development of information technologies. Together, they made a huge volume of scientific databases available. Meanwhile, scientific studies have become more complex and interdisciplinary, involving the exchange of knowledge between scientists from different disciplines. Nanotechnologyfocused research is a good example. Bibliometric indicators and tools are useful instruments to study and gain insight in science and, in particular, complex fields or research areas, c.f., van Raan (2004). Therefore, many studies on nanotechnology relied on bibliometric approaches (Hullmann & Meyer, 2003; Igami, 2008; Kostoff, Koytcheff, & Lau, 2009; Milanez, Faria, Amaral, Leiva, & Gregolin, 2014; Mogoutov & Kahane, 2007; Wang, Notten, & Surpatean, 2012). The problems often are: how to delineate a field or research area, how to retrieve the relevant data, and which publications to include and which not. In this sense, classification systems have been used as an indispensable tool to study the structure and dynamics of scientific fields (Boyack, Klavans, & Börner, 2005; Glanzel & Schubert, 2003; Leydesdorff, Carley, & Rafols, 2013; Waltman & van Eck, 2012). They can simplify literature search and retrieving procedures (Glanzel & Schubert, 2003; Waltman & van Eck, 2012). According to Glanzel and Schubert (2003), classification of science into a disciplinary structure can be as old as science and, currently, most of them are based on journal assignment, such as the Web of Science and Scopus systems. The drawback of these