Abstract
The use of the reference materials of scientific publication has increased among scientific communication literature as an approach to examine the seminal publications that mark the construction of knowledge of a new research area, and to explore the historical and actual flow of ideas in a specific disciplinary field. The purpose of this article is to perform an exploratory analysis of the flow of ideas that feed the first works identified in nanotechnology (NT) research applied to agriculture and food (A&F) in Mexico. Using Citation-Assisted Background approach and qualitative work based on interviews with key researches in the field, we examined a range of dimensions that represent the flow of ideas: the most used communication channels, the seminal works, the most cited authors, and the specialized journals. A total of 7770 references were retrieved, which were divided into two periods for analysis, the first from 1906 to 1997 (531 references) and the second from 1998 to 2018 (7239 references). We found a highly deconcentrated citation, where more than 80% of the works are cited only once. We found that there is an 8% similarity in the citing and cited journal titles, that is to say, the nucleus of ideas that nourishes the production is again reviewed and accepted by the referenced community. Our findings indicate that, whereas Nanotechnology is a well-established science and technology field in developed countries, in Mexico, NT applied to the area of A&F is just beginning. Seminal works in the intersection nano-agro-food are not clearly defined and the titles of communication channels reflect the authors' ties to their original discipline.
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Notes
The bibliometric study was reported in a book chapter Anzaldo & Hernandez (in printing process).
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Hernandez-García, Y.I., Anzaldo Montoya, M. Flow of ideas in the study of communication channels and references in publications on nanotechnology applied to food and agriculture in Mexico. Scientometrics 126, 995–1017 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03793-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03793-y