Using Rasch KIDMAP to identify whether China dominates the research area of computer science (CS) based on the specialization index of article citations: Bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Background: Scientific comparative advantage is measured by using a specialization index (SI) of article citations. The profile data have been published in the literature. However, no such research has been conducted to determine which countries dominate the field of computer science (CS) (subject category [SC]) using the SI. A KIDMAP in the Rasch model has been applied to the display of individual student performance in school. Based on the SI of article citations, we used KIDMAP to determine whether China dominates the field of CS. Methods: The data were derived from published research in the Web of Science, which included 199 countries and 254 subject categories (SC, between 2010 and 2019). A total of 96 SC related to biomedicine were extracted. We examined 7 factors associated with CS using exploratory factor analysis. Based on the SI in CS under the Rasch model, 1-dimensional SCs on CS were displayed on Wright Maps and KIDMAPs. An analysis of the dominance of CS in China was presented on the basis of a scatter plot. Results: Our findings indicate that (1) CS domains are divided into 2 groups (traditional and advanced domains); (2) no evidence has been found that China dominates CS; based on SI indicators, China was ranked third with -−2.62 and 0.79 logits after Taiwan and Slovenia (-(−2.62 and 9.24 logits in Factors 1 and 2) in the period from 2010 to 2019. Conclusions: There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that China has a dominant role over other countries/regions despite ranking third in CS. In future studies, it is recommended to include a KIDMAP visual to assess dominant roles in other areas of research, rather than to confine ourselves to CS as we did in this study.