Biofuel research and data mining

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore and map the intellectual structure of biofuel research.Design/methodology/approachThe study attempts to present the structure of biofuel research through document co‐citation patterns of core references. Document co‐citation analysis was performed using the Web of Science of the Thomson‐ISI database. A sample of 26 cited references was identified and the co‐citation frequencies were analyzed and represented them systematically within groups of similar researched topics.FindingsThe study shows the co‐citation analysis method suitable for depicting structure of biofuel research in document clusters by performing multivariate analysis: cluster analysis, factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and network analysis.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to research articles and co‐citation data for the first author only. For the co‐citation analysis, the cited references rather than the cited authors were used as the units for analysis.Practical implicationsCo‐citational analysis using multivariate tools provides a useful technique to explore and document the development of the field supplementing the insights normally available from the routine co‐citational analysis.Originality/valueSpecialties in biofuel research are identified and this may provide a valuable building block for future research.