International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications

Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010

A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing

Research Using Bibliometric Methodology During 1993 to 2009

Chi-Yen Yin*, Yan-Ping Chi

Department of Management Information Systems, National Chengchi University, Taipei, 116,

Taiwan

97356509@nccu.edu.tw, ypchi@mis.nccu.edu.tw doi: 10.4156/jdcta.vol4.issue2.3

Abstract

This research is mainly to explore a bibliometric

approach to quantitatively assessing research trend on

ubiquitous computing, utilizing the related literature

information in Ei database from 1993 to 2009. The

result appeared that the literature production within

ubiquitous computing title is fast growing. The

distribution of cumulative numbers of literature on

ubiquitous computing does confirm the typical S-shape

for Bradford’s plot. The most document type of

publication is conference article, composting 67.92%

of total literature and English is the major language

(98.06%). Republic of Korea is the biggest

contributing country on ubiquitous computing

literature publishing (19.91%). National Institute of

Informatics (Japan), Sungkyunkwan University (Korea)

and Korea University (Korea) are ranking as the top

three author affiliations in this paper.

Keywords

Ubiquitous computing; Bradford’s Law;

Bibliometric Methodology

1. Introduction

The topic of ubiquitous computing began a full

exploration of all the possibilities in every research

aspect in last twenty years. This paper is applying

bibliometric methodology toward onto a historical

review and trend analysis of literature productivity. To

get better understanding about the quantitative aspects

of recorded information such as research authors,

institutions, languages and subjects, it is proceeding by

Bradford’s law on cumulative numbers of literature

versus journal ranking between 1993 and 2009 to

perform Bradford’s plot distribution analysis.

The objectives of this research are:

1) To explore the growth of ubiquitous computing

literature published.

2) To determine the core source titles which

contain a substantial portion of publication

literatures in research aspect of ubiquitous

computing?

3) To find the literature productivity distribution

of author affiliation on this subject.

4) To identify the major contributing countries

that published the most literatures in research

aspect of ubiquitous computing.

5) To find the dispersion of kinds of language and

document types of the literature on ubiquitous

computing.

6) To reveal the characteristic of citation for the

ubiquitous computing literature.

Ubiquitous computing is a post-desktop model of

human-computer interaction in which information

processing has been thoroughly integrated into

everyday objects and activities. In the course of

ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous

computing engages many computational devices and

systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily even

be aware that they are doing so. This model is usually

considered the advancement from the desktop

paradigm.

2. Methodology

This research utilized the Ei Compendex (another

named as Engineering Village 2; EV2) which

supported by Elsevier Engineering Information, USA.

Elsevier Engineering Information is the leader in

providing online information, knowledge, and support

of the highest professional relevance for research and

industrial practitioners in applied physical sciences and

engineering. Elsevier Engineering Information offers

an array of products and services for universities,

corporations and government organizations, including:

Engineering Village ™, EnCompass™, Compendex®,

The Engineering Index® , Chemical Business

NewsBase®, Chimica™ and PaperChem™.

Engineering Village is a Web-based information

service that offers a widespread range of quality

resources for information specialists, professionals, and

25

A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology

During 1993 to 2009

Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi

researchers working in the applied science and

engineering fields. Although other databases such as

Business Source Complete (EBSCOhost), Library and

Information Science Abstract (LISA), Scirus, CBCA

Business (ProQuest), Science Citation Index (SCI), and

Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) are also available

for bibliometric analysis, Ei is adopted because it is

recognized as the leading English language supplier of

literature services providing access to the published

information in the multidiscipline fields of engineering

and applied science. Moreover, it is the only database

that affords a comprehensive citation data of the

published literature.

The topics of Ei database currently include

engineering and applied science under the information

on various subjects, such as: chemical engineering,

computer and data processing, applied physics,

electrical engineering, electronics and communications

engineering, civil engineering, materials engineering

and so on. In the Engineering Village 2 (Ei) database

also offers other information inquiries:

1) United State Patent and Trademark Office

(USPTO): Look in 1970 after the U.S. Patent

and Trademark, the database is updated weekly. 2) Esp@cenet: patent database, data source for

the European Patent Office, the World

Intellectual Property Organization, the Japan

Patent Organization. 3) Scirus: for a comprehensive search engine of

scientific topics. Pen that contains nine 10

million websites and 17 million pens from the

Science Direct, MEDLINE on BioNMedNet

such information. 4) LexisNexis News: provide engineering-related

news and information, the database is updated

daily. The Ei database can not only search the database

from the general way through the subject, title and

author then to find the information, the most important

features are through the author cited in the references,

patents and so on, as what search terms to be found by

the authors quoted in a certain specific articles or

books, patent information. Cited reference searching is

an unique tool can also be applied: to find who cited an

article to be written a new paper published, which

means that the findings of this article is affecting the

younger research direction; ancestors based on the

study path of evolution as a research guidelines;

understanding of the situation and so on peer research. For the present research the time span of the Ei

available is from 1993 through 2009. Each record at

the Ei database contains an English language title and

descriptive abstract, together with full bibliographic

information. The bibliographic information includes

the periodicals or other publication title, the author’s

name, affiliation/institution, country, document type,

language and so on.

3. Research finding and Discussion

The result is total 929 indexes of literature retrieved

which titles are selected as “ubiquitous computing”

from 1993 through 2009 as well as a primary

parameter for literature production analysis, shown as

Figure 1. The other analyzed parameters for this

research which include country, document type,

language, publication year, author, author affiliation

source title and classification code. The abstract of

literature, number of times cited, and reprint author’s

address are also acquired for bibliometric analysis and

historical review.

3.1 Ubiquitous computing historical analysis

The earliest two literatures relate to research topic

of ubiquitous computing were discovered at Ei

database. First literature published on the 3rd

European Conference on Computer-Supported

Cooperative Work, and the title of this conference

article is “Design for privacy in ubiquitous

computing environments” (Bellotti, Victoria and Sellen,

Abigail; 1993). The second literature published on

Operating Systems Review (ACM). The title of this

journal article is “Providing location information in a

ubiquitous computing environment” (Spreitzer, Mike

and Theimer, Marvin; 1993).

Year

NP

26

International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications

Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010

Figure 1. Annual publication distribution and trend

line (Total publications: 929 retrieved from Ei database)

3.1.1 Distribution by publication year, document

type and language

Obviously, the literature production of ubiquitous

computing increased up since 2000. It inferred that the

research of ubiquitous computing is very popular and

toward onto the fast growing period in last ten years,

shows as Figure 1. In the recent five years, there are a

lot of research publications between 2005 and 2009

which reached the record counts in terms of

147(15.82%), 179(19.27%), 172(18.51%), 166(17.87%)

and 78(8.40%), respectively, shows as Table 1.

In Ei database, it observed that conference articles

comprise as the majority published document type on

ubiquitous computing, refer to Table 2. The major

distribution of language segmentation, it indicated

English is the most popular language for article

publication, display as Table 3.

3.1.2 Distribution by country/territory and author

affiliation

Table 4 completely lists the distribution of

publication by country and territory. The Republic of

Korea (185; 19.91%) is the champion, and following

by USA (112; 12.06%), Japan (99; 10.66%), China (81;

8.72%), Germany (55; 5.92%), United Kingdom (52;

5.60%), Canada (22; 2.37%), France (21; 2.26%),

Spain (20; 2.15%) and Greece (19; 2.05%) are the top

10 countries which published the most articles of

ubiquitous computing in last sixteen years.

Listing publication comprehensively by the author

affiliation, Table 5 indicates National Institute of

Informatics (Japan; 17; 1.83%) tops the ranking, and

following with Sungkyunkwan University (Korea; 15;

1.61%), Korea University (Korea; 9; 0.97%), ,

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China; 8; 0.86%),

Zhejiang University (China; 8; 0.86%), Kyung Hee

University (Korea; 7; 0.75%), Soongsil University

(Korea; 7; 0.75%), Soongsil University (Korea; 6;

0.65%), Yonsei University (Korea; 6; 0.65%) and

Kwangwoon University (Korea; 6; 0.65%) are the top

10 author institutions in the publications of ubiquitous

computing research.

3.1.3 Distribution by source title

Table 6 discovers in detail that “Lecture Notes in

Computer Science (including Subseries Lecture Notes

in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in

Bioinformatics)” (177; 19.05%) is ranking as the

champion to publish literature on the ubiquitous

computing, following by “Lecture Notes in Computer

Science” (22; 2.37%), “Personal and Ubiquitous

Computing” (20; 2.15%), “IEEE Pervasive

Computing” (16; 1.72%), “Proceedings of The ACM

Symposium on Applied Computing” (13; 1.40%),

“Communications of The ACM” (12; 1.29%), “ACM

International Conference Proceeding Series” (10;

1.08%), “Proceedings - IEEE International Conference

on Sensor Networks, Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy

Computing” (10; 1.08%), “Lecture Notes in Artificial

Intelligence (Subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer

Science)” (9; 0.97%), and “Proceedings of The 5th

International Conference on Embedded and

Ubiquitous Computing, EUC 2008” (9; 0.97%) are the

top 10 journals with the most publications in the

research aspect of ubiquitous computing.

3.1.4 Distribution by subject category

Table 7 displays that “Computer Applications”,

“Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering”,

“Telecommunication; Radar, Radio and Television”,

“Digital Computers and Systems”, “Computer

Programming”, “Data Communication, Equipment and

Techniques”, “Computer Peripheral Equipment”,

“Computer Systems and Equipment” and “Data

Processing and Image Processing” are the top 10

categories by classification code with the most

frequently publications on ubiquitous computing.

Table 1. Distribution of Publication Year

Year NP PT

1993 2 0.22%

1994 1 0.11%

1995 2 0.22%

1996 1 0.11%

1997 5 0.54%

1998 3 0.32%

1999 7 0.75%

2000 8 0.86%

2001 15 1.61%

2002 21 2.26%

2003 38 4.09%

2004 84 9.04%

2005 147 15.82%

2006 179 19.27%

2007 172 18.51%

27

A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology

During 1993 to 2009

Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi

2008 166 17.87%

2009 78 8.40%

NP: Number of Publication

PT: Percentage of 929

Table 2. Distribution of Document Type

Document type NP PT

Conference article 631 67.92%

Journal article 258 27.77%

Conference proceeding 40 4.31%

NP: Number of Publication

PT: Percentage of 929

Table 3. Distribution of Language

Language NP PT

English 911 98.06%

Chinese 8 0.86%

Japanese 6 0.65%

German 3 0.32%

Italian 1 0.11%

NP: Number of Publication

PT: Percentage of 929

Table 4. Distribution of Top 30 Countries

Rank Country NP PT

1 Korea, Republic Of 185 19.91%

2 United States 112 12.06%

3 Japan 99 10.66%

4 China 81 8.72%

5 Germany 55 5.92%

6 United Kingdom 52 5.60%

7 Canada 22 2.37%

8 France 21 2.26%

9 Spain 20 2.15%

10 Greece 19 2.05%

11 Italy 16 1.72%

12 Australia 14 1.51%

12 Finland 14 1.51%

14 Taiwan 12 1.29%

15 Ireland 11 1.18%

16 Switzerland 10 1.08%

16 Brazil 10 1.08%

18 Netherlands 8 0.86%

19 Sweden 6 0.65%

19 India 6 0.65%

21 Denmark 4 0.43%

21 Portugal 4 0.43%

23 Russia 3 0.32%

24 South Africa 2 0.22%

24 Pakistan 2 0.22%

24 United Arab Emirates 2 0.22%

24 Hong Kong 2 0.22%

24 Cyprus 2 0.22%

29 Aust 1 0.11%

29 Singapore 1 0.11%

29 Norway 1 0.11%

29 Myanmar 1 0.11%

29 Mexico 1 0.11%

29 Malaysia 1 0.11%

29 Austria 1 0.11%

29 Iran 1 0.11%

29 Belgium 1 0.11%

29 Bangladesh 1 0.11%

Other Countries 125 13.46%

NP: Number of Publication

PT: Percentage of 929

Table 5. Distribution of Top 30 Author Affiliations

Rank Author affiliation Nationality NP PT

1 National Institute of

Informatics Japan 17 1.83%

2 Sungkyunkwan University Korea, Republic

Of 15 1.61%

3

Department of Computer

Science And Engineering,

Korea University

Korea, Republic

Of 9 0.97%

4

Department of Computer

Science And Engineering,

Shanghai Jiao Tong

University

China 8 0.86%

4 College of Computer Science,

Zhejiang University China 8 0.86%

6

Department of Computer

Engineering, Kyung Hee

University

Korea, Republic

Of 7 0.75%

6 School of Computing,

Soongsil University

Korea, Republic

Of 7 0.75%

8 Dept. of Computer Science,

Yonsei University

Korea, Republic

Of 6 0.65%

8 Department of Information Korea, Republic 6 0.65%

28

International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications

Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010

and Control Engineering,

Kwangwoon University

Of

8 IEEE IO 6 0.65%

11

Department of Computer

Science and Engineering,

Arizona State University

USA 5 0.54%

11 Hellenic Open University Greece 5 0.54%

11

School of Engineering,

Information and

Communications University

Korea, Republic

Of 5 0.54%

11 Intel Research, Seattle IER 5 0.54%

15

College of Information

Sciences and Technology,

Donghua University

Taiwan 4 0.43%

15 University of Tokyo Japan 4 0.43%

15 Intel Corporation IER 4 0.43%

15

Department of Information

and Communication,

Baekseok University

Korea, Republic

Of 4 0.43%

15 Politecnico Di Bari Italy 4 0.43%

15 Georgia Institute of

Technology USA 4 0.43%

15 Information and

Communications University

Korea, Republic

Of 4 0.43%

15

Dept. of Computer

Engineering, Hannam

University

Korea, Republic

Of 4 0.43%

15

College of Mathematics and

Computer Science, Anhui

Normal University

China 4 0.43%

15

Dub Group, Computer

Science and Engineering,

University of Washington

USA 4 0.43%

15 Athens Information

Technology Greece 4 0.43%

15 Nokia Research Center IER 4 0.43%

15

Graduate School of

Information, Yonsei

University

Korea, Republic

Of 4 0.43%

15

School of Computer

Engineering, Sejong

University

Korea, Republic

Of 4 0.43%

15 Computer Laboratory,

University Of Cambridge United Kingdom 4 0.43%

30 Department of Computer USA 3 0.32%

Science, University of Illinois

30

Department of Computing,

Hong Kong Polytechnic

University

Hong Kong 3 0.32%

30 University of Twente Netherlands 3 0.32%

30 Microsoft Research IER 3 0.32%

30 Graduate School, Chinese

Academy of Sciences China 3 0.32%

30 Department of Computing,

Imperial College London United Kingdom 3 0.32%

30

School of Computer Science

and Technology, Huazhong

University of Science and

Technology

China 3 0.32%

30 TECO, University of

Karlsruhe Germany 3 0.32%

30 Computing Department,

Lancaster University United Kingdom 3 0.32%

30 Faculty of Multimedia, Daegu

Haany University

Korea, Republic

Of 3 0.32%

30

Center for Research in

Wireless Mobility and

Networking (Crewman),

Department of Computer

Science and Engineering,

University of Texas at

Arlington

USA 3 0.32%

30

College of Computing, GYU

Center, Georgia Institute of

Technology

USA 3 0.32%

30

Department of Computer

Science And Technology,

Tsinghua University

China 3 0.32%

30 Department of Computer

Science, Waseda University Japan 3 0.32%

30

Department of Computer

Science and Engineering,

Kyungnam University

Korea, Republic

Of 3 0.32%

30 Xerox Palo Alto Research

Center IER 3 0.32%

30

Department of Computer

Science and Engineering,

Inha University

Korea, Republic

Of 3 0.32%

30 Palo Alto Research Center IER 3 0.32%

30 Graduate School of Korea, Republic 3 0.32%

29

A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology

During 1993 to 2009

Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi

Information and

Communication, Ajou

University

Of

30 Georgia Inst of Technology USA 3 0.32%

30 Birkbeck College, University

of London United Kingdom 3 0.32%

30 University of California USA 3 0.32%

30 Laboratorio De Sistemas,

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Spain 3 0.32%

30

Department of Electrical

Engineering, National Taiwan

University

Taiwan 3 0.32%

30

Institute of Computing

Technology, Chinese

Academy of Sciences

China 3 0.32%

30

Dept. of Computer

Engineering, Chonbuk

National University

Korea, Republic

Of 3 0.32%

30 Polytechnic University of

Valencia Italy 3 0.32%

30 University of Washington USA 3 0.32%

Other author affiliations

NP: Number of Publication

PT: Percentage of 929

IO: International Organization

IER: International Enterprise and Research Centre

Table 6. Distribution of Top 60 Source Titles

Rank Source title NP PT

1

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

(including Subseries Lecture Notes in

Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in

Bioinformatics)

177 19.05%

2 Lecture Notes in Computer Science 22 2.37%

3 Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 20 2.15%

4 IEEE Pervasive Computing 16 1.72%

5 Proceedings of The ACM Symposium on

Applied Computing 13 1.40%

6 Communications of The ACM 12 1.29%

7 ACM International Conference Proceeding

Series 10 1.08%

7

Proceedings - IEEE International

Conference on Sensor Networks,

Ubiquitous, and Trustworthy Computing

10 1.08%

9 Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 9 0.97%

(Subseries of Lecture Notes in Computer

Science)

9

Proceedings of The 5th International

Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous

Computing, EUC 2008

9 0.97%

11 Conference on Human Factors in

Computing Systems - Proceedings 8 0.86%

11 Proceedings - International Conference on

Distributed Computing Systems 8 0.86%

13

Parallel and Distributed Computing,

Applications and Technologies, PDCAT

Proceedings

7 0.75%

13

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal

Society A: Mathematical, Physical and

Engineering Sciences

7 0.75%

13

Proceedings - 2007 International

Conference on Multimedia and Ubiquitous

Engineering, MUE 2007

7 0.75%

16 Computer Communications 6 0.65%

16

Proceedings - Second IEEE Workshop on

Software Technologies for Future

Embedded and Ubiquitous Systems

6 0.65%

16

Proceedings of The 4th Annual

International Conference on Mobile and

Ubiquitous Systems: Computing,

Networking and Services, Mobiquitous

2007

6 0.65%

16 IET Conference Publications 6 0.65%

16 Proceedings - International Computer

Software and Applications Conference 6 0.65%

21

7th Annual IEEE International Conference

On Pervasive Computing and

Communications, PERCOM 2009

5 0.54%

21

Proceedings - 3rd International

Conference on Convergence and Hybrid

Information Technology, ICCIT 2008

5 0.54%

21

Proceedings - 2008 International

Symposium on Ubiquitous Multimedia

Computing, UMC 2008

5 0.54%

24 Computer 4 0.43%

24

Proceedings - 12th IEEE International

Conference on Computational Science And

Engineering, CSE 2009

4 0.43%

24 Wireless Networks 4 0.43%

24 IEEE Distributed Systems Online 4 0.43%

30

International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications

Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010

24

Proceedings - Second IEEE Annual

Conference on Pervasive Computing and

Communications, Workshops, PERCOM

4 0.43%

24

Proceedings - 21st International

Conference on Advanced Information

Networking and Applications

Workshops/Symposia, AINAW'07

4 0.43%

24 COMTEC 4 0.43%

24

UBICOMP 2008 - Proceedings of the 10th

International Conference on Ubiquitous

Computing

4 0.43%

24 Journal of Donghua University (English

Edition) 4 0.43%

24

Proceedings the 2007 International

Conference on Intelligent Pervasive

Computing, IPC 2007

4 0.43%

24 IEICE Transactions on Communications 4 0.43%

24

Proceedings - 2006 International

Conference on Hybrid Information

Technology, ICHIT 2006

4 0.43%

24 International Journal of Human Computer

Studies 4 0.43%

24

Proceedings - International Conference on

Advanced Information Networking and

Applications, AINA

4 0.43%

38

2007 International Conference on

Convergence Information Technology,

ICCIT 2007

3 0.32%

38

Mobiquitous 2005: Second Annual

International Conference on Mobile And

Ubiquitous Systems -Networking And

Services

3 0.32%

38 Mobile Networks and Applications 3 0.32%

38 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy

Systems 3 0.32%

38 IEEE International Symposium on

Industrial Electronics 3 0.32%

38 WSEAS Transactions on Computers 3 0.32%

38

Proceedings - 2008 The 1st IEEE

International Conference on Ubi-Media

Computing and Workshops, U-Media2008

3 0.32%

38

Proceedings - Fourth Annual IEEE

International Conference on Pervasive

Computing and Communications

Workshops, PERCOM Workshops 2006

3 0.32%

38 Proceedings - International Conference

On Software Engineering 3 0.32%

38

Proceedings - The 2nd International

Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous

Computing, Systems, Services And

Technologies, Ubicomm 2008

3 0.32%

38 International Symposium On Wearable

Computers, Digest of Papers 3 0.32%

38 Journal of Systems And Software 3 0.32%

38 ETRI Journal 3 0.32%

38

Conference Proceedings - IEEE

International Conference on Systems, Man

And Cybernetics

3 0.32%

38 IEICE Transactions on Information And

Systems 3 0.32%

38 Pervasive and Mobile Computing 3 0.32%

38 International Journal of Medical

Informatics 3 0.32%

38

ICESS 2005 - Second International

Conference on Embedded Software and

Systems

3 0.32%

38

Proceedings - Second IEEE Annual

Conference on Pervasive Computing and

Communications, PERCOM

3 0.32%

38

Proceedings of The 1st International Joint

Workshop on Wireless Ubiquitous

Computing, WUC 2007, in Conjunction

with ICEIS 2007

3 0.32%

38

Kyokai Joho Imeji Zasshi/Journal of The

Institute of Image Information and

Television Engineers

3 0.32%

59

Healthcom 2007: Ubiquitous Health in

Aging Societies - 2007 9th International

Conference on E-Health Networking,

Application and Services

2 0.22%

59

Proceedings of The Conference on

Designing Interactive Systems: Processes,

Practices, Methods, and Techniques, DIS

2 0.22%

Other Source Title 426

NP: Number of Publication

PT: Percentage of 929

Table 7. Distribution of Top 60 Classification Codes

Rank Classification code CN

1 Computer Applications 518

31

A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology

During 1993 to 2009

Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi

2 Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering 404

3 Telecommunication; Radar, Radio and Television 311

4 Computer Software, Data Handling and Applications 273

5 Digital Computers and Systems 234

6 Computer Programming 209

7 Data Communication, Equipment and Techniques 201

8 Computer Peripheral Equipment 190

9 Computer Systems and Equipment 189

10 Data Processing and Image Processing 183

11 Computer Theory, Includes Formal Logic, Automata

Theory, Switching Theory, Programming Theory 166

12 Artificial Intelligence 163

13 Mathematics 113

14 Control Systems 110

15 Radio Systems and Equipment 99

16 Information Dissemination 98

17 Management 92

18 Control Instrumentation 74

19 Optical Communication 72

20 Telephone Systems and Related Technologies; Line

Communications 65

21 Computer Programming Languages 62

22 Information Theory and Signal Processing 60

23 Information Science 56

24 Information Services 51

25 Information Retrieval and Use 49

26 Information Sources and Analysis 46

26 Education 46

28 Codes and Standards 37

29 Database Systems 36

30 Engineering Profession 33

31 Buildings and Towers 28

32 Accidents and Accident Prevention 26

33 Numerical Methods 25

33 Engineering Research 25

33 Semiconductor Devices and Integrated Circuits 25

36 Expert Systems 21

37 Biomedical Engineering 20

37 Computer Circuits and Logic Elements 20

39 Chemistry 18

39 Television Systems and Equipment 18

41 Systems Science 17

41 Mathematical Statistics 17

41 Probability Theory 17

41 Robotics 17

41 Data Storage, Equipment and Techniques 17

41 Medicine and Pharmacology 17

47 Impact of Technology on Society 16

47 Telephone Systems and Equipment 16

47 Combinatorial Mathematics, includes Graph Theory,

Set Theory 16

47 Air Pollution Control 16

47 Health Care 16

52 Optimization Techniques 15

52 Control Devices 15

54 Personnel 13

54 Engineering Graphics 13

54 Photographic Equipment 13

54 Production Engineering 13

54 Operations Research 13

54 Automatic Control Principles and Applications 13

60 Industrial Engineering and Management 12

CN: Cumulation Number of Classification Code

Based on the above information, it infers that the

current research of ubiquitous computing has been

reached in the fast growing stage, the majority of

publication outputs are in North America, UK,

European countries. Republic of Korea, Japan, China,

Taiwan, and Hong Kong are the top 5 ranking

countries in Asia. The subject of ubiquitous computing

has been research highly research growth since 2000. It

is to strengthen the association of communication

network which accelerated by the popularization of

wireless telecommunication infrastructure. The subject

of ubiquitous computing has also become the most

popular research topic in the world.

4. The Productivity Analysis of Literatures

of Ubiquitous computing by Bradford’s

Law

This section is mainly discussing the distribution

situation of literature productivity of author which

certificated by Bradford’s Law. Table 8 lists that the

distribution of top 30 author’s contribution. The top 5

authors are particularly listing as Lee, Young Koo

(Korea; 11), Kim, Shin Dug (Korea; 10), Kurumatani,

Koichi (Japan; 9), Satoh, Ichiro (Japan; 9), Sashima,

Akio (Japan; 8) and Izumi, Noriaki (Japan; 8).

Meanwhile, it also calculates the cumulative literatures

retrieved by the source titles in Ei database. Refer to

Table 9.

32

International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications

Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010

Table 8. Listing of Top 30 author’s contributions

Rank Author NAA NP

1 Lee, Young Koo Korea, Republic Of 11

2 Kim, Shin Dug Korea, Republic Of 10

3 Kurumatani, Koichi Japan 9

3 Satoh, Ichiro Japan 9

5 Sashima, Akio Japan 8

5 Izumi, Noriaki Japan 8

7 Sakamura, Ken Japan 7

7 Youn, Hee Yong Korea, Republic Of 7

7 Kameas, Achilles Greece 7

7 Davies, Nigel USA 7

11 Schmidt, Albrecht Germany 6

11 Ramdane, Cherif Amar France 6

11 Hina, Manolo Dulva Canada 6

11 Lee, Dongman Korea, Republic Of 6

11 Pu, Fang China 6

11 Zhang, Yong China 6

11 Cao, Qiying China 6

11 Roussos, George Grecce 6

11 Landay, James A. USA 6

11 Guo, Minyi China 6

11 Ko, Eung Nam Korea, Republic Of 6

22 Leem, Choon Seong Korea, Republic Of 5

22 Soldatos, John Grecce 5

22 Minami, Masateru Japan 5

22 Park, Jong Hyuk Korea, Republic Of 5

22 Nakajima, Tatsuo Japan 5

22 Kwon, Ohbyung Korea, Republic Of 5

22 Cao, Qi Ying China 5

22 Morikawa, Hiroyuki Japan 5

22 Wu, Qing China 5

22 Aoyama, Tomonori Japan 5

22 Terrenghi, Lucia Germany 5

33 Zhang, Shensheng China 4

33 Merabti, Madjid United Kingdom 4

33 Park, Kyung Lang Korea, Republic Of 4

33 Joshi, Anupam USA 4

33 Das, Sajal K. USA 4

33 Baik, Doo Kwon Korea, Republic Of 4

33 Honiden, Shinichi Japan 4

33 Campbell, Roy USA 4

33 Suganuma, Takuo Japan 4

33 Sun, Dao Qing Korea, Republic Of 4

33 Ranganathan, Anand USA 4

33 Shiratori, Norio Japan 4

45 Kim, Hyun Seok Korea, Republic Of 3

45 Ohsuga, Akihiko Japan 3

45 Doctor, Faiyaz United Kingdom 3

45 Li, Li China 3

45 Dong, Mianxiong China 3

45 Lei, Chin Laung Taiwan 3

45 Roy, Nirmalya USA 3

45 Yang, Fan China 3

45 Hashizume, Hiromichi Japan 3

45 Kim, Jinhyung Korea, Republic Of 3

45 Moon, Hyeonjoon Korea, Republic Of 3

45 Shim, Young Chul Korea, Republic Of 3

45 Reiher, Peter USA 3

45 Callaghan, Victor United Kingdom 3

45 Kinoshita, Tetsuo Japan 3

45 Choi, Jin Young Korea, Republic Of 3

NP: Number of Publication

NAA: Nationality of Author Affiliation

Table 9. Distribution of Cumulative Numbers of

Literatures on ubiquitous computing

NP NS Cum. L PT

1 426 426 45.86%

2 2 4 0.43%

3 21 63 6.78%

4 14 56 6.03%

≧5 23 380 40.90%

NP: Number of Publication

NS: Number of Source Titles

Cum. L: Cumulative Number of Literatures

PT: Percentage of 929

4.1 Bradford’s Law

Bradford's law is a pattern that first described by

Samuel C. Bradford in 1934. It estimates the

exponentially diminishing returns of extending a

search for references in science journals. One

formulation is that if source titles in a field are sorted

by number of articles into three groups, each with

about one-third of all articles, then the number of

source titles in each group will be proportional to

1：n：n². There are a number of related formulations

of the principle.

33

A Historical Review and Trend Analysis of Ubiquitous Computing Research Using Bibliometric Methodology

During 1993 to 2009

Chi-Yen Yin, Yan-Ping Chi

Figure 2. the distribution of cumulative number of

literatures and trend line (Total publication: 929

indexes)

Generally, Bradford revealed a pattern of how

literature in a subject is distributed in source titles. "If

scientific journals are arranged in order of decreasing

productivity of articles on a given subject, they may be

divided into a nucleus of periodicals more particularly

devoted to the subject and several other groups of

zones containing the same number of articles as the

nucleus" (Turnbull, 2005; Drott, 1981). Bradford's

Formula makes it possible to estimate how many of the

most productive sources would yield any specified

fraction p of the total number of items.

The formula is:

R(n) =3D N log n/s (1 ≦ n ≦ N)

Where

R(n) is the cumulative total of items contributed by

the sources of rank 1 to n,

N is the total number of contributing sources,

And

s is a constant characteristic of the literature.

We then can describe that:

R(N) =3D N log N/s is the total number of items

contributed by sources.

Over time, this is also a measure of the rate of

obsolescence by distinguishing between the usages of

the levels of items. Essentially, this is a method of

clustering. For this paper, 23 journals have 380 articles,

the next 37 journals have 123 articles, and the last 426

journals have 426 articles. We roughly get three

groupings of these articles. Bradford noticed this

consistent number of titles it takes to contribute to each

third of the articles.

Bradford discovered this regularity of calculating

the number of titles in each of the three groups: 9 titles,

9x5 titles, 9x5x5 titles. Drott suggests that we can

apply this widely, as long as we account for sample

sizes, area of (journal) specialization and journal

policies (Turnbull, 2005; Drott,1981).

B.C. Brookes takes Bradford one step further

pointing out that he is correct if we have a finite

(manageable, relevant) number of journals. Editorial

selection and publishing costs currently determine

much of the structure and content amount of most

publications. Brookes' point may be more relevant

when analyzing the expanding, multi-relational World

Wide Web. Will these ratios hold, change or not apply

at all? With a deluge of information, we may find the

limits to this law.

Volume and homogeneity may work against us.

More positively, we may discover that there is a drop-

off point where Bradford's Law at least applies for

some period. This means that for resource pressures,

there is a drop-off point. We can examine this again by

time, to see that citations originally counted year by

year can be expressed as the geometric sequence:

N, Na, Na2, Na

3, Na

4, ..., Na

t-1

where R is the presumed number of citations during

the first year (some which could not immediately be

referenced in publication), but as a<1, the sum of the

sequence converges to the finite limit R/(1-a). Again,

here we see how Web documents might be impacted

by thinking about what constitutes a "Web year".

5. Conclusion

Ubiquitous computing is one of fast growing

discussion subjects in recent years, this historical

review and trend analysis of this research field were

determined by each kind of literature characteristic and

author productivity distribution is getting into the

highly mature period, it infers that the production of

present ubiquitous computing literatures is still

continually to grow. The result of this research will

help researchers to obtain the future research trend and

the constitution of the different research domains on

ubiquitous computing.

The main research development facility with

contributed the large production is Republic of Korea,

but USA, Germany, United Kingdom, and some Asia

countries such as Japan, China, Taiwan, and Hong

Kong, these non-US individual authors literature

contributed actually are also very popular.

The cumulative number of literatures does follow

by Bradford’s Law, which means the literature

CL: Cumulative Literatures

R: the Ranking of Source Titles

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International Journal of Digital Content Technology and its Applications

Volume 4, Number 2, April 2010

production is not only a widespread but also dominated

by a minority of periodicals. The applications of

ubiquitous computing mainly follow by research

aspects which in term of computer applications,

ergonomics and human factors engineering,

telecommunication; radar, radio and television, digital

computers and systems, computer programming, data

communication, equipment and techniques, computer

peripheral equipment, computer systems and

equipment and data processing and image processing.

The literatures of ubiquitous computing are usually

generated by single authorship.

6. References

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Citation Analysis”, Library Trends, 1973, pp.18-43.

[2] B. C. Brookes, “Numerical Methods of Bibliographic

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Proceeding of 5th NCM international joint conference

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Technovation, 29 (10), 2009, pp.725-727.

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