稳健设计检索文献的结果分析

Results Analysis of Research Documents on Robust Design
Deshun Liu Anhua Chen Yiping Shen
Health Maintenance for Mechanical Equipment Key Lab of Hunan Province
Hunan University of Science and Technology
Xiangtan, Hunan, P. R.411201, China
liude@
Abstract
The search results of research documents on robust design from 1995 to 2004 are
introduced based on Web of Science. The total 708 research documents are analyzed in
several fields such as subject category, source title, institute name, and author. Especially,
the 236 search records of the related mechanical engineering are reanalyzed and compared
with Chinese search records.
Keywords:robust design, mechanical engineering.
1 Introduction
Over the last decades robust design has been widely used in mechanical engineering, electronic and control engineering, chemical engineering, computer science and management science. As a result of wide applications, a great number of research papers and technical reports have been presented and published. It is very interesting and necessary to analyze and discuss the amount and distribution of the research documents in order to improve the understanding of robust design and its applications. In this paper, the analyzed research documents on robust design topic during the latest ten-year period, are from Web of Science (WS)[1] and Chinese Journals Database (CJ)[2].
Web of Science is the world leading citation databases, whose authoritative journal coverage is provided by Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Science Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and two additional databases. A useful analysis tool can also be utilized on Web of Science, which enables users to refine searches by mining data from results, group and organize search results. It should be noted that the number of the displayed records would be greater than the listed record count 708 because the original set contains more records than the analyzed records. More than one author would share a research document, while a research document would involve more than one subject. However, this problem does not exist in CJ records analysis, as the search results from Chinese Journal Databases need to be analyzed by hand.
All searches are performed on Web of Science and Chinese Journals Database on January 26, 2005. The search word is robust design for both Web of Science and Chinese Journal Databases. The search period is ten years from 1995 to 2004. 708 records in Web of Science and 190 records in Chinese Journal Databases are searched. In Web of Science, the language of almost all of search records is English. The document type of 97% search records is article. Other document types are review, editorial material, correction and letter, only 3% of 708 records.
2 Results Analysis
2.1 Distribution in years
The number of search records increased more than two times for pasting ten year, showed in Figure 1. WS and CJ represent the number of search records from Web of Science and from Chinese Journals Databases
199519961997199819992000200120022003
2004
Figure 1 Number of search records from 1995 to 2004
respectively. ME represent the number of search records in mechanical engineering from Web of Science. In Web of Science, the number of search records increased from 43 records in 1995 to 97 records in 2004. An average of 70 documents for one year was released. Among them, the number of search records in mechanical engineering increased from 8 records in 1995 to 39 records in 2004, where mechanical, multidisciplinary, industrial and manufacturing subjects displayed below are considered as mechanical engineering. In Chinese Journal Databases, the number of search records increased from 10 records in 1995 to 32 records in 2004. An average of 20 documents was released per year. However, the number of documents related to mechanical engineering varied from 5 to 8 records every year, which did not show the obvious increasing trend during the ten years.
2.2 Distribution in subjects
Although research documents involved 103 subject categories, they were concentrated on several main subjects, such as electrical & electronic engineering, operation research & management science, statistics & probability and mechanical engineering. Figure 2 shows the top ten subjects. The number of documents in
Figure 2 The top ten subjects based on search records
mechanical engineering, including 4 subjects mentioned above, were 236, more than one third of all records. Because of the small sample, the search records were divided into three categories. Research documents in mechanical engineering have 92 records, close to half of all records. Research documents in control engineering, including electrical, electronic and automation subjects, have 83 records. The remaining of 15 records is in management science and chemical engineering.
2.3 Distribution in resources
The search records were from 302 journals. Although average number of articles published in every journal was less than 3 for ten years, the number of articles in one of the top ten sources was not less than 10 articles shown in Figure 3, which the number of the top results was 22 percents of all search records. This may mean that most of journals published only one article for ten years. For mechanical engineering category, the number of documents published in the top ten resources shown in Figure 4 was more than half of that from all
Figure 3 The top ten journals based on search records
72 journals. Actually, the top five journals published more than one third of all articles. As one of transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineer, 22 articles were released in Journal of Mechanical Design, while 12 articles were published in Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Journal of Chinese Mechanical Engineering during the same period, which were supported by Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society.
2.4 Distribution in institutes and authors
1477 authors from 585 institutes shared 708 articles. Average number of co-authors per article was about 2, or about 2 authors shared a article on an average. The top ten authors shown in Figure 5 presented 136 articles, about one fifth. Nichols, JD is the author who has published the most articles, total 21. The top ten institutes shown in Figure 5 presented 143 articles. Among them, 7 institutes were universities, 2 scientific institutes and one company. 8 institutes were in the United States of America, 2 institutes were in Singapore and Switzerland. Search results from Chinese journals Databases shown that Chen, LZ was who present the most articles, whose total 8 were related to mechanical engineering. The authors ranked the top ten could lead a research group in their institutes, so that their co-authors and institutes could rank the top positions. Kendall, WL was a leading researcher in US Geology Survey. Nichols, JD and Hines, JE were members of his group, who conducted cooperative research on robust design in ecology subject category.
For mechanical engineering, 453 authors from 204 institutes shared 236 articles. About two authors shared one article on an average. The top ten authors shown in Figure 6 have released 58 articles. Chen, W was the
Figure 6 The top ten authors and institutes based on search records in mechanical engineering author with the most articles, who presented 14 articles, 6 articles more than Chen, LZ. The top ten institutes presented 69 articles. Among them, 9 institutes were universities, and just one was the company. 9 institutes were in the United States of America, and only one was in British. Mistree, F was leading a research group
focused on robust design in mechanical engineering field in Georgia Institute of technology. He shared many articles with Chen, Allen and Simpson. Chen, W then became a leading researcher in University of Illinois at Chicago.
3 Conclusion
As robust design have recognized to be a powerful method that could improve the quality of products and save the cost of products, research interest has been increasing continuously since the ending of last century. Especially in mechanical engineering, search document analysis reflects that robust design method earns the increasing interest from both universities and industries in the United States of America. Although the number of documents on robust design is increasing, its applications are less wide in China than in the United States of America. There are a little search records in other subjects except the documents related to mechanical engineering and control engineering. And more, the number of published articles in mechanical engineering does not increase obviously during the last ten years. Therefore, it will be significant to make more researches on robust design and its applications in China.
References
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