Characterizing Research Evolution in Interdisciplinary Fields Using Artificial Intelligence and Network Science: A Case Study of Italian Design

Data characterization

Our exploratory data analysis of the dataset revealed several trends.

There has been a gradual increase in diverse publication types in the field of design since 2000, with articles, books, and book chapters constituting the most significant share of publications. We observed a steady upward trend in the number of authors per publication for articles and book chapters, indicating a possible shift towards collaborative research.

OpenAlex's concept analysis revealed that Italian design research spans a wide range of topics within the domain, with design-related concepts and interdisciplinary concepts both featuring prominently. The increasing number of concepts per publication type suggests a growing complexity in research themes in the field.

Landscape of research interests evolution over time

Text analysis of the dataset enabled us to track the evolution of research interests within the Italian design community.

Our examination of the most frequently occurring bigrams over time showed a dynamic research landscape, with specific themes gaining and losing prominence over the years.

Further analysis using topic modeling revealed three distinct clusters within the dataset: User-Centric Experience Design, Innovative Product Design, and Sustainable Service Design. Each cluster encompasses a set of related keywords and highlights specific areas of interest within the field.

By mapping the prevalence of publications within each topic cluster over time, we found that user-centric experience design has been a consistently popular theme, while innovative product design and sustainable service design have experienced some fluctuations in popularity in recent years.

Design landscape with network analysis and graph structures

We leveraged network science to explore the evolution of collaboration patterns in Italian design research.

Our analysis of heterogeneous graphs, constructed to represent the academic collaboration network (ACN) over time, demonstrated an increasing tendency towards collaborative research.

The co-authorship subgraphs within each ACN showed a growing number and size of connected components, signifying larger groups of researchers working together.

Overall, our findings point to a shift towards more collaborative research practices within the field of Italian design.

Conclusion

Our study provides insights into the evolution of the Italian design research landscape, highlighting the increasing importance of collaboration and the emergence of new research topics.

The findings suggest that the field is undergoing a transformation, moving away from individual researchers working in isolation towards a more collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to research.

We believe that the interdisciplinary communication of complex research questions, although challenging, can be a fertile ground for design research, enabling researchers to explore diverse perspectives and develop innovative solutions.