Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Ther Innov Regul Sci. 2023 Jul;57(4):810-822. doi: 10.1007/s43441-023-00529-x. Epub 2023 May 18.
Establishing a horizon scanning method is critical for identifying technologies that require new guidelines or regulations. We studied the application of bibliographic citation network analysis to horizon scanning.
The possibility of applying the proposed method to interdisciplinary fields was investigated with the emphasis on tissue engineering and its example, three-dimensional bio-printing.
In all, 233,968 articles on tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, biofabrication, and additive manufacturing published between January 1, 1900 and November 3, 2021 were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection. The citation network of the articles was analyzed for confirmation that the evolution of 3D bio-printing is reflected by tracking the key articles in the field. However, the results revealed that the major articles on the clinical application of 3D bio-printed products are located in clusters other than that of 3D bio-printers. We investigated the research trends in this field by analyzing the articles published between 2019 and 2021 and detected various basic technologies constituting tissue engineering, including microfluidics and scaffolds such as electrospinning and conductive polymers. The results suggested that the research trend of technologies required for product development and future clinical applications of the product are sometimes detected independently by bibliographic citation network analysis, particularly for interdisciplinary fields.
This method can be applied to the horizon scanning of an interdisciplinary field. However, identifying basic technologies of the targeted field and following the progress of research and the integration process of each component of technology are critical.
建立一个视野扫描方法对于识别需要新的指南或法规的技术至关重要。我们研究了文献引用网络分析在视野扫描中的应用。
本研究旨在探讨将该方法应用于跨学科领域的可能性，重点关注组织工程及其示例——三维生物打印。
共从 Web of Science 核心合集获取了 1900 年 1 月 1 日至 2021 年 11 月 3 日期间发表的关于组织工程、再生医学、生物制造和增材制造的 233968 篇文章。分析了这些文章的引文网络，以确认通过跟踪该领域的关键文章，能够反映三维生物打印的演变。然而，结果表明，关于 3D 生物打印产品临床应用的主要文章位于 3D 生物打印机集群之外。通过分析 2019 年至 2021 年期间发表的文章，我们研究了该领域的研究趋势，并检测到组织工程中包括微流控和支架（如静电纺丝和导电聚合物）在内的各种基础技术。结果表明，通过文献引用网络分析，有时可以独立检测到产品开发所需技术和产品未来临床应用的研究趋势，特别是对于跨学科领域。
该方法可应用于跨学科领域的视野扫描。然而，识别目标领域的基础技术并跟踪研究进展以及技术各组成部分的融合过程至关重要。
