The Landscape of Academic Literature in Quantum Information Technologies
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In this study, we have investigated the landscape of academic literature in quantum information technologies (QIT) using bibliometric tools of analysis. In the first part of the study, we have used an initial set of 50,822 articles obtained from the Web of Science using an extensive search query constructed through expert opinion. Analysis of this section revealed that QIT is deeply rooted in the field of physics and over 80 journals mainly reserved for publication in physics. Additionally, it can be seen from this initial set that on a quantitative level based on the number of published scientific articles, the US, China, and Europe are almost on par. Furthermore, a keyword analysis on this set revealed that the main academic literature can be clustered into three distinct sets, which are (i) quantum communication/cryptography, (ii) quantum computation, and (iii) physical realizations of quantum systems. Finally, for the first section, a burst analysis on this set using different density parameters showed the emergence and fading away of certain key concepts in the literature. In the second part, we focused on 808 "highly cited" articles provided by the Web of Science. Using the co-citation analysis of these articles we have devised a set of core corpus of 34 publications for QIT literature and showed how this core corpus is clustered in itself. Finally for the second section, using bibliographic coupling we have mapped collaboration networks on the country and institutional levels. Search queries and access to enhanced views of figures are provided in appendix.
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