Analysis of Research Topics and Scientific Collaborations in Energy Saving Using Bibliometric Techniques and Community Detection

• Main Authors: Carmen de la Cruz-Lovera, Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno, José Luis de la Cruz-Fernández, Francisco G. Montoya, Alfredo Alcayde, Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-05-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: energy-saving; energy conservation; energy utilization; energy efficiency; scientific collaboration
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/10/2030

Concern about everything related to energy is increasingly latent in the world and therefore the use of energy saving concepts has been increasing over the past several years. The interest in the subject has allowed a conceptual evolution in the scientific community regarding the understanding of the adequate use of energy. The objective of this work is to determine the contribution made by international institutions to the specialized publications in the area of energy-saving from 1939 to 2018, using Scopus Database API Interface. The methodology followed in this research was to perform a bibliometric analysis of the whole scientific production indexed in Scopus. The world’s scientific production has been analysed in the following domains: First the trend over time, types of publications and countries, second, the main subjects and keywords, third, main institutions and their main topics, and fourth, the main journals and proceedings that publish on this topic. Then, these data are presented using community detection algorithms and graph visualization software. With these techniques, it is possible to determine the main areas of research activity as well as to identify the structures of the collaboration network in the field of renewable energy. The results of the work show that the literature in this field have substantially increased during the last 10 years.