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International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications
Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010
A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing
Research Using Bibliometric Methodology During 1993 to 2009
Chi-Yen Yin*, Yan-Ping Chi
Department of Management Information Systems, National Chengchi University, Taipei, 116,
Taiwan
[email protected] , [email protected] doi: 10.4156/jdcta.vol4.issue2.3
Abstract
This research is mainly to explore a bibliometric
approach to quantitatively assessing research trend on
ubiquitous computing, utilizing the related literature
information in Ei database from 1993 to 2009. The
result appeared that the literature production within
ubiquitous computing title is fast growing. The
distribution of cumulative numbers of literature on
ubiquitous computing does confirm the typical S-shape
for Bradford’s plot. The most document type of
publication is conference article, composting 67.92%
of total literature and English is the major language
(98.06%). Republic of Korea is the biggest
contributing country on ubiquitous computing
literature publishing (19.91%). National Institute of
Informatics (Japan), Sungkyunkwan University (Korea)
and Korea University (Korea) are ranking as the top
three author affiliations in this paper.
Keywords
Ubiquitous computing; Bradford’s Law;
Bibliometric Methodology
1. Introduction
The topic of ubiquitous computing began a full
exploration of all the possibilities in every research
aspect in last twenty years. This paper is applying
bibliometric methodology toward onto a historical
review and trend analysis of literature productivity. To
get better understanding about the quantitative aspects
of recorded information such as research authors,
institutions, languages and subjects, it is proceeding by
Bradford’s law on cumulative numbers of literature
versus journal ranking between 1993 and 2009 to
perform Bradford’s plot distribution analysis.
The objectives of this research are:
1) To explore the growth of ubiquitous computing
literature published.
2) To determine the core source titles which
contain a substantial portion of publication
literatures in research aspect of ubiquitous
computing?
3) To find the literature productivity distribution
of author affiliation on this subject.
4) To identify the major contributing countries
that published the most literatures in research
aspect of ubiquitous computing.
5) To find the dispersion of kinds of language and
document types of the literature on ubiquitous
computing.
6) To reveal the characteristic of citation for the
ubiquitous computing literature.
Ubiquitous computing is a post-desktop model of
human-computer interaction in which information
processing has been thoroughly integrated into
everyday objects and activities. In the course of
ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous
computing engages many computational devices and
systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily even
be aware that they are doing so. This model is usually
considered the advancement from the desktop
paradigm.
2. Methodology
This research utilized the Ei Compendex (another
named as Engineering Village 2; EV2) which
supported by Elsevier Engineering Information, USA.
Elsevier Engineering Information is the leader in
providing online information, knowledge, and support
of the highest professional relevance for research and
industrial practitioners in applied physical sciences and
engineering. Elsevier Engineering Information offers
an array of products and services for universities,
corporations and government organizations, including:
Engineering Village ™, EnCompass™, Compendex®,
The Engineering Index® , Chemical Business
NewsBase®, Chimica™ and PaperChem™.
Engineering Village is a Web-based information
service that offers a widespread range of quality
resources for information specialists, professionals, and
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A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology
During 1993 to 2009
Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi
researchers working in the applied science and
engineering fields. Although other databases such as
Business Source Complete (EBSCOhost), Library and
Information Science Abstract (LISA), Scirus, CBCA
Business (ProQuest), Science Citation Index (SCI), and
Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also available
for bibliometric analysis, Ei is adopted because it is
recognized as the leading English language supplier of
literature services providing access to the published
information in the multidiscipline fields of engineering
and applied science. Moreover, it is the only database
that affords a comprehensive citation data of the
published literature.
The topics of Ei database currently include
engineering and applied science under the information
on various subjects, such as: chemical engineering,
computer and data processing, applied physics,
electrical engineering, electronics and communications
engineering, civil engineering, materials engineering
and so on. In the Engineering Village 2 (Ei) database
also offers other information inquiries:
1) United State Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO): Look in 1970 after the U.S. Patent
and Trademark, the database is updated weekly. 2) Esp@cenet: patent database, data source for
the European Patent Office, the World
Intellectual Property Organization, the Japan
Patent Organization. 3) Scirus: for a comprehensive search engine of
scientific topics. Pen that contains nine 10
million websites and 17 million pens from the
Science Direct, MEDLINE on BioNMedNet
such information. 4) LexisNexis News: provide engineering-related
news and information, the database is updated
daily. The Ei database can not only search the database
from the general way through the subject, title and
author then to find the information, the most important
features are through the author cited in the references,
patents and so on, as what search terms to be found by
the authors quoted in a certain specific articles or
books, patent information. Cited reference searching is
an unique tool can also be applied: to find who cited an
article to be written a new paper published, which
means that the findings of this article is affecting the
younger research direction; ancestors based on the
study path of evolution as a research guidelines;
understanding of the situation and so on peer research. For the present research the time span of the Ei
available is from 1993 through 2009. Each record at
the Ei database contains an English language title and
descriptive abstract, together with full bibliographic
information. The bibliographic information includes
the periodicals or other publication title, the author’s
name, affiliation/institution, country, document type,
language and so on.
3. Research finding and Discussion
The result is total 929 indexes of literature retrieved
which titles are selected as “ubiquitous computing”
from 1993 through 2009 as well as a primary
parameter for literature production analysis, shown as
Figure 1. The other analyzed parameters for this
research which include country, document type,
language, publication year, author, author affiliation
source title and classification code. The abstract of
literature, number of times cited, and reprint author’s
address are also acquired for bibliometric analysis and
historical review.
3.1 Ubiquitous computing historical analysis
The earliest two literatures relate to research topic
of ubiquitous computing were discovered at Ei
database. First literature published on the 3rd
European Conference on Computer-Supported
Cooperative Work, and the title of this conference
article is “Design for privacy in ubiquitous
computing environments” (Bellotti, Victoria and Sellen,
Abigail; 1993). The second literature published on
Operating Systems Review (ACM). The title of this
journal article is “Providing location information in a
ubiquitous computing environment” (Spreitzer, Mike
and Theimer, Marvin; 1993).
Year
NP
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International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications
Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010
Figure 1. Annual publication distribution and trend
line (Total publications: 929 retrieved from Ei database)
3.1.1 Distribution by publication year, document
type and language
Obviously, the literature production of ubiquitous
computing increased up since 2000. It inferred that the
research of ubiquitous computing is very popular and
toward onto the fast growing period in last ten years,
shows as Figure 1. In the recent five years, there are a
lot of research publications between 2005 and 2009
which reached the record counts in terms of
147(15.82%), 179(19.27%), 172(18.51%), 166(17.87%)
and 78(8.40%), respectively, shows as Table 1.
In Ei database, it observed that conference articles
comprise as the majority published document type on
ubiquitous computing, refer to Table 2. The major
distribution of language segmentation, it indicated
English is the most popular language for article
publication, display as Table 3.
3.1.2 Distribution by country/territory and author
affiliation
Table 4 completely lists the distribution of
publication by country and territory. The Republic of
Korea (185; 19.91%) is the champion, and following
by USA (112; 12.06%), Japan (99; 10.66%), China (81;
8.72%), Germany (55; 5.92%), United Kingdom (52;
5.60%), Canada (22; 2.37%), France (21; 2.26%),
Spain (20; 2.15%) and Greece (19; 2.05%) are the top
10 countries which published the most articles of
ubiquitous computing in last sixteen years.
Listing publication comprehensively by the author
affiliation, Table 5 indicates National Institute of
Informatics (Japan; 17; 1.83%) tops the ranking, and
following with Sungkyunkwan University (Korea; 15;
1.61%), Korea University (Korea; 9; 0.97%), ,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China; 8; 0.86%),
Zhejiang University (China; 8; 0.86%), Kyung Hee
University (Korea; 7; 0.75%), Soongsil University
(Korea; 7; 0.75%), Soongsil University (Korea; 6;
0.65%), Yonsei University (Korea; 6; 0.65%) and
Kwangwoon University (Korea; 6; 0.65%) are the top
10 author institutions in the publications of ubiquitous
computing research.
3.1.3 Distribution by source title
Table 6 discovers in detail that “Lecture Notes in
Computer Science (including Subseries Lecture Notes
in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in
Bioinformatics)” (177; 19.05%) is ranking as the
champion to publish literature on the ubiquitous
computing, following by “Lecture Notes in Computer
Science” (22; 2.37%), “Personal and Ubiquitous
Computing” (20; 2.15%), “IEEE Pervasive
Computing” (16; 1.72%), “Proceedings of The ACM
Symposium on Applied Computing” (13; 1.40%),
“Communications of The ACM” (12; 1.29%), “ACM
International Conference Proceeding Series” (10;
1.08%), “Proceedings - IEEE International Conference
on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy
Computing” (10; 1.08%), “Lecture Notes in Artificial
Intelligence (Subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer
Science)” (9; 0.97%), and “Proceedings of The 5th
International Conference on Embedded and
Ubiquitous Computing, EUC 2008” (9; 0.97%) are the
top 10 journals with the most publications in the
research aspect of ubiquitous computing.
3.1.4 Distribution by subject category
Table 7 displays that “Computer Applications”,
“Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering”,
“Telecommunication; Radar, Radio and Television”,
“Digital Computers and Systems”, “Computer
Programming”, “Data Communication, Equipment and
Techniques”, “Computer Peripheral Equipment”,
“Computer Systems and Equipment” and “Data
Processing and Image Processing” are the top 10
categories by classification code with the most
frequently publications on ubiquitous computing.
Table 1. Distribution of Publication Year
Year NP PT
1993 2 0.22%
1994 1 0.11%
1995 2 0.22%
1996 1 0.11%
1997 5 0.54%
1998 3 0.32%
1999 7 0.75%
2000 8 0.86%
2001 15 1.61%
2002 21 2.26%
2003 38 4.09%
2004 84 9.04%
2005 147 15.82%
2006 179 19.27%
2007 172 18.51%
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A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology
During 1993 to 2009
Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi
2008 166 17.87%
2009 78 8.40%
NP: Number of Publication
PT: Percentage of 929
Table 2. Distribution of Document Type
Document type NP PT
Conference article 631 67.92%
Journal article 258 27.77%
Conference proceeding 40 4.31%
NP: Number of Publication
PT: Percentage of 929
Table 3. Distribution of Language
Language NP PT
English 911 98.06%
Chinese 8 0.86%
Japanese 6 0.65%
German 3 0.32%
Italian 1 0.11%
NP: Number of Publication
PT: Percentage of 929
Table 4. Distribution of Top 30 Countries
Rank Country NP PT
1 Korea, Republic Of 185 19.91%
2 United States 112 12.06%
3 Japan 99 10.66%
4 China 81 8.72%
5 Germany 55 5.92%
6 United Kingdom 52 5.60%
7 Canada 22 2.37%
8 France 21 2.26%
9 Spain 20 2.15%
10 Greece 19 2.05%
11 Italy 16 1.72%
12 Australia 14 1.51%
12 Finland 14 1.51%
14 Taiwan 12 1.29%
15 Ireland 11 1.18%
16 Switzerland 10 1.08%
16 Brazil 10 1.08%
18 Netherlands 8 0.86%
19 Sweden 6 0.65%
19 India 6 0.65%
21 Denmark 4 0.43%
21 Portugal 4 0.43%
23 Russia 3 0.32%
24 South Africa 2 0.22%
24 Pakistan 2 0.22%
24 United Arab Emirates 2 0.22%
24 Hong Kong 2 0.22%
24 Cyprus 2 0.22%
29 Aust 1 0.11%
29 Singapore 1 0.11%
29 Norway 1 0.11%
29 Myanmar 1 0.11%
29 Mexico 1 0.11%
29 Malaysia 1 0.11%
29 Austria 1 0.11%
29 Iran 1 0.11%
29 Belgium 1 0.11%
29 Bangladesh 1 0.11%
Other Countries 125 13.46%
NP: Number of Publication
PT: Percentage of 929
Table 5. Distribution of Top 30 Author Affiliations
Rank Author affiliation Nationality NP PT
1 National Institute of
Informatics Japan 17 1.83%
2 Sungkyunkwan University Korea, Republic
Of 15 1.61%
3
Department of Computer
Science And Engineering,
Korea University
Korea, Republic
Of 9 0.97%
4
Department of Computer
Science And Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong
University
China 8 0.86%
4 College of Computer Science,
Zhejiang University China 8 0.86%
6
Department of Computer
Engineering, Kyung Hee
University
Korea, Republic
Of 7 0.75%
6 School of Computing,
Soongsil University
Korea, Republic
Of 7 0.75%
8 Dept. of Computer Science,
Yonsei University
Korea, Republic
Of 6 0.65%
8 Department of Information Korea, Republic 6 0.65%
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Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010
and Control Engineering,
Kwangwoon University
Of
8 IEEE IO 6 0.65%
11
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering,
Arizona State University
USA 5 0.54%
11 Hellenic Open University Greece 5 0.54%
11
School of Engineering,
Information and
Communications University
Korea, Republic
Of 5 0.54%
11 Intel Research, Seattle IER 5 0.54%
15
College of Information
Sciences and Technology,
Donghua University
Taiwan 4 0.43%
15 University of Tokyo Japan 4 0.43%
15 Intel Corporation IER 4 0.43%
15
Department of Information
and Communication,
Baekseok University
Korea, Republic
Of 4 0.43%
15 Politecnico Di Bari Italy 4 0.43%
15 Georgia Institute of
Technology USA 4 0.43%
15 Information and
Communications University
Korea, Republic
Of 4 0.43%
15
Dept. of Computer
Engineering, Hannam
University
Korea, Republic
Of 4 0.43%
15
College of Mathematics and
Computer Science, Anhui
Normal University
China 4 0.43%
15
Dub Group, Computer
Science and Engineering,
University of Washington
USA 4 0.43%
15 Athens Information
Technology Greece 4 0.43%
15 Nokia Research Center IER 4 0.43%
15
Graduate School of
Information, Yonsei
University
Korea, Republic
Of 4 0.43%
15
School of Computer
Engineering, Sejong
University
Korea, Republic
Of 4 0.43%
15 Computer Laboratory,
University Of Cambridge United Kingdom 4 0.43%
30 Department of Computer USA 3 0.32%
Science, University of Illinois
30
Department of Computing,
Hong Kong Polytechnic
University
Hong Kong 3 0.32%
30 University of Twente Netherlands 3 0.32%
30 Microsoft Research IER 3 0.32%
30 Graduate School, Chinese
Academy of Sciences China 3 0.32%
30 Department of Computing,
Imperial College London United Kingdom 3 0.32%
30
School of Computer Science
and Technology, Huazhong
University of Science and
Technology
China 3 0.32%
30 TECO, University of
Karlsruhe Germany 3 0.32%
30 Computing Department,
Lancaster University United Kingdom 3 0.32%
30 Faculty of Multimedia, Daegu
Haany University
Korea, Republic
Of 3 0.32%
30
Center for Research in
Wireless Mobility and
Networking (Crewman),
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering,
University of Texas at
Arlington
USA 3 0.32%
30
College of Computing, GYU
Center, Georgia Institute of
Technology
USA 3 0.32%
30
Department of Computer
Science And Technology,
Tsinghua University
China 3 0.32%
30 Department of Computer
Science, Waseda University Japan 3 0.32%
30
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering,
Kyungnam University
Korea, Republic
Of 3 0.32%
30 Xerox Palo Alto Research
Center IER 3 0.32%
30
Department of Computer
Science and Engineering,
Inha University
Korea, Republic
Of 3 0.32%
30 Palo Alto Research Center IER 3 0.32%
30 Graduate School of Korea, Republic 3 0.32%
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A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology
During 1993 to 2009
Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi
Information and
Communication, Ajou
University
Of
30 Georgia Inst of Technology USA 3 0.32%
30 Birkbeck College, University
of London United Kingdom 3 0.32%
30 University of California USA 3 0.32%
30 Laboratorio De Sistemas,
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Spain 3 0.32%
30
Department of Electrical
Engineering, National Taiwan
University
Taiwan 3 0.32%
30
Institute of Computing
Technology, Chinese
Academy of Sciences
China 3 0.32%
30
Dept. of Computer
Engineering, Chonbuk
National University
Korea, Republic
Of 3 0.32%
30 Polytechnic University of
Valencia Italy 3 0.32%
30 University of Washington USA 3 0.32%
Other author affiliations
NP: Number of Publication
PT: Percentage of 929
IO: International Organization
IER: International Enterprise and Research Centre
Table 6. Distribution of Top 60 Source Titles
Rank Source title NP PT
1
Lecture Notes in Computer Science
(including Subseries Lecture Notes in
Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in
Bioinformatics)
177 19.05%
2 Lecture Notes in Computer Science 22 2.37%
3 Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 20 2.15%
4 IEEE Pervasive Computing 16 1.72%
5 Proceedings of The ACM Symposium on
Applied Computing 13 1.40%
6 Communications of The ACM 12 1.29%
7 ACM International Conference Proceeding
Series 10 1.08%
7
Proceedings - IEEE International
Conference on Sensor Networks,
Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy Computing
10 1.08%
9 Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 9 0.97%
(Subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer
Science)
9
Proceedings of The 5th International
Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous
Computing, EUC 2008
9 0.97%
11 Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems - Proceedings 8 0.86%
11 Proceedings - International Conference on
Distributed Computing Systems 8 0.86%
13
Parallel and Distributed Computing,
Applications and Technologies, PDCAT
Proceedings
7 0.75%
13
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Society A: Mathematical, Physical and
Engineering Sciences
7 0.75%
13
Proceedings - 2007 International
Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous
Engineering, MUE 2007
7 0.75%
16 Computer Communications 6 0.65%
16
Proceedings - Second IEEE Workshop on
Software Technologies for Future
Embedded and Ubiquitous Systems
6 0.65%
16
Proceedings of The 4th Annual
International Conference on Mobile and
Ubiquitous Systems: Computing,
Networking and Services, Mobiquitous
2007
6 0.65%
16 IET Conference Publications 6 0.65%
16 Proceedings - International Computer
Software and Applications Conference 6 0.65%
21
7th Annual IEEE International Conference
On Pervasive Computing and
Communications, PERCOM 2009
5 0.54%
21
Proceedings - 3rd International
Conference on Convergence and Hybrid
Information Technology, ICCIT 2008
5 0.54%
21
Proceedings - 2008 International
Symposium on Ubiquitous Multimedia
Computing, UMC 2008
5 0.54%
24 Computer 4 0.43%
24
Proceedings - 12th IEEE International
Conference on Computational Science And
Engineering, CSE 2009
4 0.43%
24 Wireless Networks 4 0.43%
24 IEEE Distributed Systems Online 4 0.43%
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International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications
Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010
24
Proceedings - Second IEEE Annual
Conference on Pervasive Computing and
Communications, Workshops, PERCOM
4 0.43%
24
Proceedings - 21st International
Conference on Advanced Information
Networking and Applications
Workshops/Symposia, AINAW'07
4 0.43%
24 COMTEC 4 0.43%
24
UBICOMP 2008 - Proceedings of the 10th
International Conference on Ubiquitous
Computing
4 0.43%
24 Journal of Donghua University (English
Edition) 4 0.43%
24
Proceedings the 2007 International
Conference on Intelligent Pervasive
Computing, IPC 2007
4 0.43%
24 IEICE Transactions on Communications 4 0.43%
24
Proceedings - 2006 International
Conference on Hybrid Information
Technology, ICHIT 2006
4 0.43%
24 International Journal of Human Computer
Studies 4 0.43%
24
Proceedings - International Conference on
Advanced Information Networking and
Applications, AINA
4 0.43%
38
2007 International Conference on
Convergence Information Technology,
ICCIT 2007
3 0.32%
38
Mobiquitous 2005: Second Annual
International Conference on Mobile And
Ubiquitous Systems -Networking And
Services
3 0.32%
38 Mobile Networks and Applications 3 0.32%
38 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy
Systems 3 0.32%
38 IEEE International Symposium on
Industrial Electronics 3 0.32%
38 WSEAS Transactions on Computers 3 0.32%
38
Proceedings - 2008 The 1st IEEE
International Conference on Ubi-Media
Computing and Workshops, U-Media2008
3 0.32%
38
Proceedings - Fourth Annual IEEE
International Conference on Pervasive
Computing and Communications
Workshops, PERCOM Workshops 2006
3 0.32%
38 Proceedings - International Conference
On Software Engineering 3 0.32%
38
Proceedings - The 2nd International
Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous
Computing, Systems, Services And
Technologies, Ubicomm 2008
3 0.32%
38 International Symposium On Wearable
Computers, Digest of Papers 3 0.32%
38 Journal of Systems And Software 3 0.32%
38 ETRI Journal 3 0.32%
38
Conference Proceedings - IEEE
International Conference on Systems, Man
And Cybernetics
3 0.32%
38 IEICE Transactions on Information And
Systems 3 0.32%
38 Pervasive and Mobile Computing 3 0.32%
38 International Journal of Medical
Informatics 3 0.32%
38
ICESS 2005 - Second International
Conference on Embedded Software and
Systems
3 0.32%
38
Proceedings - Second IEEE Annual
Conference on Pervasive Computing and
Communications, PERCOM
3 0.32%
38
Proceedings of The 1st International Joint
Workshop on Wireless Ubiquitous
Computing, WUC 2007, in Conjunction
with ICEIS 2007
3 0.32%
38
Kyokai Joho Imeji Zasshi/Journal of The
Institute of Image Information and
Television Engineers
3 0.32%
59
Healthcom 2007: Ubiquitous Health in
Aging Societies - 2007 9th International
Conference on E-Health Networking,
Application and Services
2 0.22%
59
Proceedings of The Conference on
Designing Interactive Systems: Processes,
Practices, Methods, and Techniques, DIS
2 0.22%
Other Source Title 426
NP: Number of Publication
PT: Percentage of 929
Table 7. Distribution of Top 60 Classification Codes
Rank Classification code CN
1 Computer Applications 518
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A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology
During 1993 to 2009
Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi
2 Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering 404
3 Telecommunication; Radar, Radio and Television 311
4 Computer Software, Data Handling and Applications 273
5 Digital Computers and Systems 234
6 Computer Programming 209
7 Data Communication, Equipment and Techniques 201
8 Computer Peripheral Equipment 190
9 Computer Systems and Equipment 189
10 Data Processing and Image Processing 183
11 Computer Theory, Includes Formal Logic, Automata
Theory, Switching Theory, Programming Theory 166
12 Artificial Intelligence 163
13 Mathematics 113
14 Control Systems 110
15 Radio Systems and Equipment 99
16 Information Dissemination 98
17 Management 92
18 Control Instrumentation 74
19 Optical Communication 72
20 Telephone Systems and Related Technologies; Line
Communications 65
21 Computer Programming Languages 62
22 Information Theory and Signal Processing 60
23 Information Science 56
24 Information Services 51
25 Information Retrieval and Use 49
26 Information Sources and Analysis 46
26 Education 46
28 Codes and Standards 37
29 Database Systems 36
30 Engineering Profession 33
31 Buildings and Towers 28
32 Accidents and Accident Prevention 26
33 Numerical Methods 25
33 Engineering Research 25
33 Semiconductor Devices and Integrated Circuits 25
36 Expert Systems 21
37 Biomedical Engineering 20
37 Computer Circuits and Logic Elements 20
39 Chemistry 18
39 Television Systems and Equipment 18
41 Systems Science 17
41 Mathematical Statistics 17
41 Probability Theory 17
41 Robotics 17
41 Data Storage, Equipment and Techniques 17
41 Medicine and Pharmacology 17
47 Impact of Technology on Society 16
47 Telephone Systems and Equipment 16
47 Combinatorial Mathematics, includes Graph Theory,
Set Theory 16
47 Air Pollution Control 16
47 Health Care 16
52 Optimization Techniques 15
52 Control Devices 15
54 Personnel 13
54 Engineering Graphics 13
54 Photographic Equipment 13
54 Production Engineering 13
54 Operations Research 13
54 Automatic Control Principles and Applications 13
60 Industrial Engineering and Management 12
CN: Cumulation Number of Classification Code
Based on the above information, it infers that the
current research of ubiquitous computing has been
reached in the fast growing stage, the majority of
publication outputs are in North America, UK,
European countries. Republic of Korea, Japan, China,
Taiwan, and Hong Kong are the top 5 ranking
countries in Asia. The subject of ubiquitous computing
has been research highly research growth since 2000. It
is to strengthen the association of communication
network which accelerated by the popularization of
wireless telecommunication infrastructure. The subject
of ubiquitous computing has also become the most
popular research topic in the world.
4. The Productivity Analysis of Literatures
of Ubiquitous computing by Bradford’s
Law
This section is mainly discussing the distribution
situation of literature productivity of author which
certificated by Bradford’s Law. Table 8 lists that the
distribution of top 30 author’s contribution. The top 5
authors are particularly listing as Lee, Young Koo
(Korea; 11), Kim, Shin Dug (Korea; 10), Kurumatani,
Koichi (Japan; 9), Satoh, Ichiro (Japan; 9), Sashima,
Akio (Japan; 8) and Izumi, Noriaki (Japan; 8).
Meanwhile, it also calculates the cumulative literatures
retrieved by the source titles in Ei database. Refer to
Table 9.
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Table 8. Listing of Top 30 author’s contributions
Rank Author NAA NP
1 Lee, Young Koo Korea, Republic Of 11
2 Kim, Shin Dug Korea, Republic Of 10
3 Kurumatani, Koichi Japan 9
3 Satoh, Ichiro Japan 9
5 Sashima, Akio Japan 8
5 Izumi, Noriaki Japan 8
7 Sakamura, Ken Japan 7
7 Youn, Hee Yong Korea, Republic Of 7
7 Kameas, Achilles Greece 7
7 Davies, Nigel USA 7
11 Schmidt, Albrecht Germany 6
11 Ramdane, Cherif Amar France 6
11 Hina, Manolo Dulva Canada 6
11 Lee, Dongman Korea, Republic Of 6
11 Pu, Fang China 6
11 Zhang, Yong China 6
11 Cao, Qiying China 6
11 Roussos, George Grecce 6
11 Landay, James A. USA 6
11 Guo, Minyi China 6
11 Ko, Eung Nam Korea, Republic Of 6
22 Leem, Choon Seong Korea, Republic Of 5
22 Soldatos, John Grecce 5
22 Minami, Masateru Japan 5
22 Park, Jong Hyuk Korea, Republic Of 5
22 Nakajima, Tatsuo Japan 5
22 Kwon, Ohbyung Korea, Republic Of 5
22 Cao, Qi Ying China 5
22 Morikawa, Hiroyuki Japan 5
22 Wu, Qing China 5
22 Aoyama, Tomonori Japan 5
22 Terrenghi, Lucia Germany 5
33 Zhang, Shensheng China 4
33 Merabti, Madjid United Kingdom 4
33 Park, Kyung Lang Korea, Republic Of 4
33 Joshi, Anupam USA 4
33 Das, Sajal K. USA 4
33 Baik, Doo Kwon Korea, Republic Of 4
33 Honiden, Shinichi Japan 4
33 Campbell, Roy USA 4
33 Suganuma, Takuo Japan 4
33 Sun, Dao Qing Korea, Republic Of 4
33 Ranganathan, Anand USA 4
33 Shiratori, Norio Japan 4
45 Kim, Hyun Seok Korea, Republic Of 3
45 Ohsuga, Akihiko Japan 3
45 Doctor, Faiyaz United Kingdom 3
45 Li, Li China 3
45 Dong, Mianxiong China 3
45 Lei, Chin Laung Taiwan 3
45 Roy, Nirmalya USA 3
45 Yang, Fan China 3
45 Hashizume, Hiromichi Japan 3
45 Kim, Jinhyung Korea, Republic Of 3
45 Moon, Hyeonjoon Korea, Republic Of 3
45 Shim, Young Chul Korea, Republic Of 3
45 Reiher, Peter USA 3
45 Callaghan, Victor United Kingdom 3
45 Kinoshita, Tetsuo Japan 3
45 Choi, Jin Young Korea, Republic Of 3
NP: Number of Publication
NAA: Nationality of Author Affiliation
Table 9. Distribution of Cumulative Numbers of
Literatures on ubiquitous computing
NP NS Cum. L PT
1 426 426 45.86%
2 2 4 0.43%
3 21 63 6.78%
4 14 56 6.03%
≧5 23 380 40.90%
NP: Number of Publication
NS: Number of Source Titles
Cum. L: Cumulative Number of Literatures
PT: Percentage of 929
4.1 Bradford’s Law
Bradford's law is a pattern that first described by
Samuel C. Bradford in 1934. It estimates the
exponentially diminishing returns of extending a
search for references in science journals. One
formulation is that if source titles in a field are sorted
by number of articles into three groups, each with
about one-third of all articles, then the number of
source titles in each group will be proportional to
1:n:n². There are a number of related formulations
of the principle.
33
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A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology
During 1993 to 2009
Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi
Figure 2. the distribution of cumulative number of
literatures and trend line (Total publication: 929
indexes)
Generally, Bradford revealed a pattern of how
literature in a subject is distributed in source titles. "If
scientific journals are arranged in order of decreasing
productivity of articles on a given subject, they may be
divided into a nucleus of periodicals more particularly
devoted to the subject and several other groups of
zones containing the same number of articles as the
nucleus" (Turnbull, 2005; Drott, 1981). Bradford's
Formula makes it possible to estimate how many of the
most productive sources would yield any specified
fraction p of the total number of items.
The formula is:
R(n) =3D N log n/s (1 ≦ n ≦ N)
Where
R(n) is the cumulative total of items contributed by
the sources of rank 1 to n,
N is the total number of contributing sources,
And
s is a constant characteristic of the literature.
We then can describe that:
R(N) =3D N log N/s is the total number of items
contributed by sources.
Over time, this is also a measure of the rate of
obsolescence by distinguishing between the usages of
the levels of items. Essentially, this is a method of
clustering. For this paper, 23 journals have 380 articles,
the next 37 journals have 123 articles, and the last 426
journals have 426 articles. We roughly get three
groupings of these articles. Bradford noticed this
consistent number of titles it takes to contribute to each
third of the articles.
Bradford discovered this regularity of calculating
the number of titles in each of the three groups: 9 titles,
9x5 titles, 9x5x5 titles. Drott suggests that we can
apply this widely, as long as we account for sample
sizes, area of (journal) specialization and journal
policies (Turnbull, 2005; Drott,1981).
B.C. Brookes takes Bradford one step further
pointing out that he is correct if we have a finite
(manageable, relevant) number of journals. Editorial
selection and publishing costs currently determine
much of the structure and content amount of most
publications. Brookes' point may be more relevant
when analyzing the expanding, multi-relational World
Wide Web. Will these ratios hold, change or not apply
at all? With a deluge of information, we may find the
limits to this law.
Volume and homogeneity may work against us.
More positively, we may discover that there is a drop-
off point where Bradford's Law at least applies for
some period. This means that for resource pressures,
there is a drop-off point. We can examine this again by
time, to see that citations originally counted year by
year can be expressed as the geometric sequence:
N, Na, Na2, Na
3, Na
4, ..., Na
t-1
where R is the presumed number of citations during
the first year (some which could not immediately be
referenced in publication), but as a<1, the sum of the
sequence converges to the finite limit R/(1-a). Again,
here we see how Web documents might be impacted
by thinking about what constitutes a "Web year".
5. Conclusion
Ubiquitous computing is one of fast growing
discussion subjects in recent years, this historical
review and trend analysis of this research field were
determined by each kind of literature characteristic and
author productivity distribution is getting into the
highly mature period, it infers that the production of
present ubiquitous computing literatures is still
continually to grow. The result of this research will
help researchers to obtain the future research trend and
the constitution of the different research domains on
ubiquitous computing.
The main research development facility with
contributed the large production is Republic of Korea,
but USA, Germany, United Kingdom, and some Asia
countries such as Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hong
Kong, these non-US individual authors literature
contributed actually are also very popular.
The cumulative number of literatures does follow
by Bradford’s Law, which means the literature
CL: Cumulative Literatures
R: the Ranking of Source Titles
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International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications
Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010
production is not only a widespread but also dominated
by a minority of periodicals. The applications of
ubiquitous computing mainly follow by research
aspects which in term of computer applications,
ergonomics and human factors engineering,
telecommunication; radar, radio and television, digital
computers and systems, computer programming, data
communication, equipment and techniques, computer
peripheral equipment, computer systems and
equipment and data processing and image processing.
The literatures of ubiquitous computing are usually
generated by single authorship.
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