Anatomy of Complex System Research
Complex systems play important roles in science and economy and have become one of the major intellectual and scientific challenges of the twenty-first century. However, the way complex system research connects to other academic fields is much less well understood, with only anecdotal evidence. In t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Complexity |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/5208356 |
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| _version_ | 1832568534024060928 |
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| author | Yang Wang Xinyue Wang |
| author_facet | Yang Wang Xinyue Wang |
| author_sort | Yang Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Complex systems play important roles in science and economy and have become one of the major intellectual and scientific challenges of the twenty-first century. However, the way complex system research connects to other academic fields is much less well understood, with only anecdotal evidence. In this work, we present an anatomy of complex system research by leveraging a large-scale dataset that contains more than 100 million digitalized publications. First, we find that complex system research shows a steady growth relative to the whole science in the last 60 years, with a sudden burst after 2000, which might be related to the development of computational technologies. Although early complex system study shows strong referencing behaviors to mathematics and physics, it couples significantly with computer science in the twenty-first century and affects engineering strongly. Moreover, we find empirical evidence that complex system research tends to have multidisciplinary nature, as it is often inspired by or affects a diverse set of disciplines. Finally, we find significant positive correlations between fields’ reference broadness and future scientific impacts. Overall, our findings are consistent with several characteristics of complex system research, i.e., its multidisciplinary, quantitative, and computational nature, and may have broad policy implications for supporting and nurturing multidisciplinary research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e64c644adc6242a9841da02b3ea99fda |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1076-2787 1099-0526 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Complexity |
| spelling | doaj-art-e64c644adc6242a9841da02b3ea99fda2025-02-03T00:58:51ZengWileyComplexity1076-27871099-05262020-01-01202010.1155/2020/52083565208356Anatomy of Complex System ResearchYang Wang0Xinyue Wang1School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, ChinaSchool of Humanities and Social Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, ChinaComplex systems play important roles in science and economy and have become one of the major intellectual and scientific challenges of the twenty-first century. However, the way complex system research connects to other academic fields is much less well understood, with only anecdotal evidence. In this work, we present an anatomy of complex system research by leveraging a large-scale dataset that contains more than 100 million digitalized publications. First, we find that complex system research shows a steady growth relative to the whole science in the last 60 years, with a sudden burst after 2000, which might be related to the development of computational technologies. Although early complex system study shows strong referencing behaviors to mathematics and physics, it couples significantly with computer science in the twenty-first century and affects engineering strongly. Moreover, we find empirical evidence that complex system research tends to have multidisciplinary nature, as it is often inspired by or affects a diverse set of disciplines. Finally, we find significant positive correlations between fields’ reference broadness and future scientific impacts. Overall, our findings are consistent with several characteristics of complex system research, i.e., its multidisciplinary, quantitative, and computational nature, and may have broad policy implications for supporting and nurturing multidisciplinary research.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/5208356 |
| spellingShingle | Yang Wang Xinyue Wang Anatomy of Complex System Research Complexity |
| title | Anatomy of Complex System Research |
| title_full | Anatomy of Complex System Research |
| title_fullStr | Anatomy of Complex System Research |
| title_full_unstemmed | Anatomy of Complex System Research |
| title_short | Anatomy of Complex System Research |
| title_sort | anatomy of complex system research |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2020/5208356 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT yangwang anatomyofcomplexsystemresearch AT xinyuewang anatomyofcomplexsystemresearch |