In the Front of Research: Newly Emerged Topics for 2024 and HKU Contributions
— by Vivian Qiu
1. Introduction
1) Research fronts
A research front can be conceptualized as the convergence of scientific discoveries and societal interests, with new findings leading to further discoveries [1]. Understanding research fronts can help researchers identify key areas for future exploration, thereby enhance the capability of researchers to contribute meaningfully to their disciplines and their impact in the scientific community [2].
2) Newly emerged topics for 2024 in SciVal
Researchers can utilize SciVal to discover newly emerged topics in their field. The platform analyzes factors such as recent publication trends, topic size, citations, and funding acknowledgments to identify these topics. In 2024, SciVal identified 70 new topics based on criteria like emergence potential, a minimum of 200 publications, significant citations, and recent funding. Researchers can refer to How are newly emerged Topics created? – SciVal Support Center for more information on the calculation process and thresholds.
To access the Newly Emerged Topics for 2024:
- Global: https://scival.com/newtopics
- The University of Hong Kong (HKU): http://find.lib.hku.hk/record=alma991022337189703414 (After log-in, at HKU’s institution page, navigate to left hand side and select “Topics” under “Research Fields”; Select “13,221 Topics”; Select “Newly Emerged Topics for 2024 worldwide” from the drop-down menu)
This blog post analyzes HKU statistics from the last five years (2019-2024), a period selectable within SciVal’s options, in Mar 2025.
2. Key contributors to the newly emerged topics
A Key Contributor in a topic is an entity meeting specific publication and citation thresholds in relation to the top entity in that topic: 1) has at least 1/3 as many publications and/or citations as the top publishing/cited entity in a topic; and 2) has at least the same number of publications as years selected [3].
1) HKU as key contributor
Out of the 70 topics identified in SciVal’s set of Newly Emerged Topics for 2024 as mentioned above, HKU researchers have made significant contributions to 7 topics (10%) and is recognized as the key contributor for each of them, as follows. This accounts for 10% of the total 70 newly emerged topics for 2024.
| Topic | Scholarly output | FWCI |
| Vaccine Efficacy; Virus Antibody; COVID-19 | 129 | 3.15 |
| Vaccine Efficacy; Vaccination Policy; COVID-19 | 66 | 2.35 |
| Convolutional Neural Network; Deep Learning; Image Segmentation | 34 | 33.36 |
| Myocarditis; Messenger RNA; COVID-19 | 31 | 3.71 |
| Online Learning; E-learning; COVID-19 | 26 | 7.26 |
| Antivirus Agent; SARS Coronavirus; COVID-19 | 22 | 5.68 |
| Construction Industry; COVID 19 Epidemic; Supply Chain Management | 11 | 1.41 |
Table 1: 7 Newly Emerged Topics That HKU Is Identified as Key Contributor
2) HKU scholarly output distribution of the newly emerged topics for 2024 by subject areas
Figure 1: HKU Scholarly Output (2019-2024) distribution of 2024 newly emerged topics by subject areas [4]
This wheel visualization illustrates the distribution of research topics across different subject areas (Note 1) [5]:
- The largest bubble, colored in blue to represent Computer Science, signifies that HKU has the highest scholarly output (131) in this field among the newly emerged topics for 2024, followed closely by Medicine (129).
- The spread of bubbles across multiple subject areas indicates the diverse research output of HKU in newly emerged topics.
3. Exploring a Newly Emerging Topic in Detail – An Illustrated Example
Each newly emerged topic can be further analysed at worldwide or institutional level, providing details such as key phrases, list of publications, and contributing authors. Below is an example of the topic “Vaccine Efficacy; Virus Antibody; COVID-19”.
1) Analysis worldwide
After clicking on the Analyze worldwide button, details of the topic worldwide appear, e.g., the top 50 key phrases by relevance and list of publications [5]. For the topic of “Vaccine Efficacy; Virus Antibody; COVID-19”, for example, its most relevant key phrases are: COVID-19 Vaccine, SARS Coronavirus, Vaccination Policy, etc.
Figure 2: Key phrases of the topic Vaccine Efficacy; Virus Antibody; COVID-19 [4]
2) Analysis at the institution
Similar details can be retrieved at the institutional level. For example, the HKU’s top 10 contributors to this specific topic are as follows.
Table 2: Top 10 Authors at the University of Hong Kong Contributing to Vaccine Efficacy; Virus Antibody; COVID-19 (By Scholarly Output)
4. Conclusion
In conclusion, researchers can benefit from exploring research frontiers to stay updated on the latest trends and developments in their fields. Utilizing platforms like SciVal can help identify newly emerged topics with detailed key phrases, and analyze scholarly output distributions and contributions to foster innovation and breakthroughs in research.
Note:
1. Interpretation for wheel image in figure 2: Each bubble represents a Topic, with size indicating the institution’s output in that Topic. Larger bubbles signify greater scholarly output. The bubble’s position and color are determined by the subject area categories in the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) scheme [6]. The bubbles spanning multiple subject areas indicates the research diversity of the topics.
References
[1] S. P. Upham and H. Small, “Emerging research fronts in science and technology: patterns of new knowledge development,” Scientometrics, vol. 83, no. 1, pp. 15–38, Apr. 2010, doi: 10.1007/s11192-009-0051-9.
[2] J. He, J. Yao, X. Chen, F. Liu, and H. Zhu, “Do civil engineering fronts emerge from interdisciplinary research?,” Front. Struct. Civ. Eng., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1–9, Jan. 2023, doi: 10.1007/s11709-022-0929-7.
[3] “How are Key Topics for an entity calculated? – SciVal Support Center.” Accessed: Mar. 12, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/35061/supporthub/scival/
[4] “Topics and Topic Clusters – SciVal.” Accessed: Mar. 12, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://scival.com/overview/topics?uri=Institution/205006&newTopicsOnly=true
[5] “What do the bubbles on the wheel of science represent? – SciVal Support Center.” Accessed: Mar. 25, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/35053/supporthub/scival/
[6] “What is the complete list of ASJC subject areas in Scopus? – Scopus Support Center.” Accessed: Mar. 25, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/15181/supporthub/scopus/
