Longitudinal Analysis of Mechanism and Machine Theory: Geospatial Productivity, Journal Citation Networks, and Researcher Communities

This paper presents a longitudinal analysis through bibliometrics from three perspectives: geospatial analysis of research productivity, citation network analysis of journals, and top productive researchers with research communities. The purpose of these analyses is to detect the development and research trends of mechanism and machine theory (MMT) field. The results indicate that the productivity of MMT publications shows a growing trend. The United States (U.S.) has dominated MMT publications, but its ratio has dropped off approximately twenty percent in the past three decades, while China (CN) has rapidly grown in its quantity and ratio of MMT publications. The concentration of MMT publications among various countries has declined over time. Through citation network analysis, the relationships between journals in the MMT field are identified and their variations over periods are derived. The citations have been centered between five related journals and three core journals. Additionally, the evolution of research communities corresponding to the top 30 productive researchers and the distribution of the publications in each community among countries are identified.