A Citation Analysis Overview of Fuzzy

Research Journals

Víctor G. Alfaro-García 1,*, José M. Merigó 2, Gerardo G. Alfaro-Calderón 3, Leo-

bardo Plata-Pérez 1, Anna M. Gil-Lafuente 4

1
Facultad de Economía, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí,
México. valfaro06@gmail.com, lplata@uaslp.mx
2 Departamento de Control de Gestión y Sistemas de Información, Universidad de Chile,

Santiago de Chile, Chile. jmerigo@fen.uchile.cl

3 Facultad de Contabilidad y Ciencias Administrativas, Universidad Michoacana de San Ni-

colás de Hidalgo, Morelia, México. ggalfaroc@gmail.com

4 Facultat de Economia y Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

amgil@ub.edu

Abstract.

The publication of bibliometric studies has gained significative relevance and popu-
larity in the last years. This fact is mainly triggered by the flexibility and dynamism
that new information technologies provide. For our case, the structured gathered mate-
rial thoroughly refined offers a wide scope of the contributions that have shaped the
diverse areas of research that Fuzzy methods consider, e.g. mathematics, computer sci-
ence, engineering, operations research, automation and control systems, business eco-
nomics, management, among several others. The purpose of the present paper is to aid
the visualization of the relations that authors, publication years and research areas hold
together utilizing bibliometric techniques. The focus of the study relies on 8 of the most
cited journals in the field of Fuzzy Research. By performing the citation analyses of the
selected journals in Thomson Reuters Web of Science database, we seek on the one
hand, high reliability of the retrieved data by adding only information that is indexed
in the core collection of the catalogue, and on the other, information regarding the con-
nections of these journals, the influence that each one has over the rest, and the authors
that continuously generate citations for the specified publications.

Keywords: Bibliometrics, Fuzzy Research Journals, Citation analyses, Web of

Science.

1 Introduction

Fifty-three years have passed since the first publication of Fuzzy Logic research. The
work, “Fuzzy Sets” issued in Information and Control by Professor Lofti A. Zadeh in
1965 [1], opened the path for a novel perspective in several fields of sciences e.g. arti-
ficial intelligence, computer science, medicine, control engineering, decision theory,
expert systems, logic, management science, operations research, pattern recognition,
robotics, among others [2, 3]. Much of the popularity of the Fuzzy Sets Theory relies
on the intuitive approach concerning subjective, ambiguous, non-clear or non-well-de-
fined problems. This characteristic feature allows scientists to generate new insights to
phenomena that cannot be well represented using traditional methods.
In our days, numerous Fuzzy specialized journals exist, assembling the scientific
products of authors all over the world. The increasing influence of Fuzzy Logic de-
mands an analysis that sheds light into the rapid evolution of the proposed concept,
techniques and models.
The journals selected for the bibliometric analyses in our study are: 1) Fuzzy Sets
and Systems (FSS); Netherlands, 2.783*, 2) Expert Systems with Applications (ESA);
USA, 3.526*, 3) Information Sciences (IS) [4-5]; USA, 4.732*, 4) Knowledge Based
Systems (KBS) [6]; Netherlands, 4.627*, 5) International Journal of Approximate Rea-
soning (IJAR); USA, 2.948*, 6) Applied Soft Computing (ASC); Netherlands, 3.811*,
7) International Journal of Intelligent Systems (IJIS) [7]; USA, 2.795*, and 8) Interna-
tional Journal of Uncertainty Fuzziness and Knowledge Based Systems (IJUFKS) [8];
Singapore, 1.232*. * Reefs to the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports 5-year im-
pact factor. All together, these journals compile over 97,000 citations and represent
some of the most influential Fuzzy Research Journals in the world. The selection pro-
cess was conducted selecting some of the most influential papers described in Merigó
et al., [9].
The objective of the present paper is to generate a citation analysis using bibliometric
techniques on eight highly cited Fuzzy research journals. The aim is to advance in the
knowledge of the trends that connect the selected journals by focusing on the top citing
authors, the publication years of the citations, the top research areas citing the journals
and a novel crossed-reference journal by journal analyses that addresses to the question,
which journal is citing which? In Fuzzy Research.
Along to the natural results of compiling and representing large amounts of data in
convenient tables, this study offers additional implications including the visualization
on the conformation or association of research groups and possible synergies between
researchers, leading journals per time-period, top research areas that explore fuzzy tech-
niques and new opportunities for applications in emerging research areas.
The paper reminder is as follows. Section 2 presents the methodology that guides
our study. Section 3 presents the results obtained, firstly introducing results for each of
the selected journals, following, the cross-referenced journal by journal results and the
results for the top influential authors.

2 Methodology

One highly important issue when conducting bibliometric studies is the need of neu-
tral and objective search processes along with a proper selection of data sources and a
clear refinement of the results[10].
In this study, we present data retrieved form the core collection of the Thomson &
Reuters Web of Science database (WoS). This database comprises high quality journals
that have rigorous standards for publication, thus ensuring a reliable source of infor-
mation. The data was retrieved following the next steps: firstly, search for publication
name i.e. “Fuzzy Sets and Systems”, “Expert Systems with Applications”, “Information
Sciences”, “Knowledge-Based Systems”; “International Journal of Approximate Rea-
soning”, “Applied Soft Computing”, “International Journal of Intelligent Systems”, and
“International Journal of Uncertainty Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems”, lim-
iting the search for the years 1900 to 2017. Note that information from 2017 is included.
Following, a search filter was used, considering only articles, reviews, letters or notes.
Finally, we perform a citation analyses and retrieve the information for authors, re-
search area, years and selected data to build the cross – referenced journal by journal
table. The search was carried out from January 2018 until March 2018. This study clas-
sifies the material using the approach found in Merigó et al. [10]. The information pre-
sented in the individual journal tables is structured in three main categories: authors,
years and research areas. The top 20 results are shown.

3 Results

Based on the steps proposed in the previous section, a total of 38,532 papers were
published by the 8 selected journals. Together they sum up 765,073 cites. A total of
276,487 papers were found to cite the selected journals. A summary of the collected
data is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Journal’s General Data

J TC TP TPC PHC PC TC/TPC TC/TP

ESA 207,128 11,023 75,178 13,338 11,520 2.8 18.8
FSS 204,834 7,385 51,757 10,296 12,966 4.0 27.7
IS 176,107 8,433 67,052 12,112 13,563 2.6 20.9
ASC 64,819 4,246 31,082 7,648 5,162 2.1 15.3
KBS 44,052 3,076 19,497 5,657 4,300 2.3 14.3
IJAR 29,110 1,592 12,782 2,872 3,809 2.3 18.3
IJIS 23,541 1,625 11,011 2,480 3,031 2.1 14.5
IJUFKS 15,482 1,152 8,128 2,234 2,286 1.9 13.4
Total 765,073 38,532 276,487 56,637 56,637 2.5 17.9
Abbreviations: J, journal; TC, total cites; TP, total papers published following the proposed methodology;
TPC, total papers citing the selected journal; PHC, papers that have cited the journal, PC, papers citing the
other selected journals; TC/TPC, total cites / total papers citing and TC/TP, Total Cites / Total Papers.

Some interesting ratios are the ones generated by the Total Cites / Total Papers Cit-
ing (TC/TPC) and Total Cites / Total Papers (TC/TP), the first ratio presents the number
of cites by the total of papers published in other journals, the second ratio shows the
number of cites generated by paper published in each journal.

3.1 Individual Journal Results

The individual results of each journal present a total of 18,252 papers from 67 dif-
ferent authors. In general, ZS Xu leads the count with 1,572 published papers citing the
selected journals, followed by W Pedrycz with 1,564, F Herrera with 1,076. RR Yager
821, XH Chen 753. For a deep visualization of the authors influence please see Table
11.
 For the category of years, the most productive year was 2017, with a total of 46,237
papers citing the journals, then 2016 with 40,980, following, 2015, 33,706; 2014,
27,297; 2013, 21,504 and 2012 with 17,551 papers. Figure 1 shows the evolution of
papers published citing the selected journals.

50,000
45,000 46,237
40,000
35,000 33,706
30,000
25,000
20,000 21,504
15,000
14,467
10,000
5,000 854 9,045
-

Fig 1. Published papers citing the selected journals per year

There is a total of 34 Research Areas comprising 409,311 studies. The most influen-
tial area is Computer Science with a total of 156,621 studies, Engineering 88,187;
Mathematics 37,116; Automation Control Systems 17,478; Operations Research
Management Science 17,364; Business Economics 12,809. Specific results are dis-
played in Tables 2 – 9.

Table 2. Results for Fuzzy Sets and Systems

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 W Pedrycz 547 2017 4984 Computer Science 30415
2 ZS Xu 297 2016 4731 Engineering 14623
3 RR Yager 280 2015 4062 Mathematics 13564
4 GH Huang 273 2014 3888 Op Research Management Science 4830
5 R Mesiar 272 2013 3360 Automation Control Systems 4509
6 F Herrera 211 2012 3069 Business Economics 2093
7 D Dubois 195 2011 2981 Science Technology 1545
8 SC Tong 191 2009 2530 Environmental Sciences Ecology 1416
9 B De Baets 174 2010 2507 Instruments Instrumentation 977
10 H Prade 170 2008 2198 Mechanics 899
11 SM Chen 166 2006 1851 Physics 795
12 C Kahraman 157 2007 1804 Water Resources 739
13 B Davvaz 154 2005 1460 Energy Fuels 538
14 H Bustince 139 2004 1247 Robotics 488
15 E Herrera-Viedma 135 2003 1101 Geology 472
16 YP Li 131 2018 989 Transportation 444
17 P Shi 129 2001 988 Materials Science 389
18 XH Chen 121 1999 902 Telecommunications 371
19 EE Kerre 119 2002 889 Chemistry 349
20 JJ Buckley 112 2000 834 Agriculture 280
 Table 3. Results for Expert Systems with Applications

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 EK Zavadskas 155 2017 14192 Computer Science 33730
2 ZS Xu 145 2016 13257 Engineering 30708
3 S Shamshirband 140 2015 11255 Op Research Management Science 12167
4 XH Chen 134 2014 8737 Business Economics 5625
5 C Kahraman 132 2013 6917 Mathematics 4516
6 W Pedrycz 131 2012 5509 Automation Control Systems 3620
7 A Azadeh 123 2011 4279 Science Technology Other Topics 3348
8 A Kumar 123 2010 2688 Environmental Sciences Ecology 2959
9 TP Hong 114 2018 2431 Energy Fuels 2312
10 GH Huang 112 2009 1904 Instruments Instrumentation 1774
11 Y Deng 110 2008 999 Telecommunications 1736
12 F Herrera 105 2007 609 Information Science Library Science 1504
13 D Petkovic 104 2006 484 Chemistry 1477
14 SM Chen 102 2005 386 Materials Science 1464
15 Q Zhang 101 2004 319 Physics 1395
16 PC Chang 100 2003 212 Mechanics 1389
17 R Tavakkoli-Moghaddam 96 2002 165 Transportation 1291
18 O Castillo 94 1999 138 Water Resources 1146
19 Y Xu 94 2001 136 Medical Informatics 997
20 M Tavana 93 2000 122 Mathematical Computational Biology 975

Table 4. Results for Information Sciences

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 W Pedrycz 383 2017 11269 Computer Science 41157
2 ZS Xu 292 2016 9530 Engineering 18843
3 F Herrera 252 2015 7702 Mathematics 10463
4 RR Yager 233 2014 6217 Op Research Management Science 5197
5 B Davvaz 182 2013 4890 Automation Control Systems 5162
6 YM Li 180 2012 4027 Telecommunications 2257
7 P Shi 177 2011 3173 Science Technology 2217
8 O Castillo 160 2018 2570 Business Economics 1882
9 CC Chang 148 2010 2474 Physics 1608
10 C Kahraman 141 2009 2199 Instruments Instrumentation 1400
11 JM Zhan 140 2008 1676 Mechanics 1024
12 D Dubois 137 2007 1332 Environmental Sciences Ecology 965
13 E Herrera-Viedma 132 2006 1187 Chemistry 800
14 H Prade 125 2005 895 Energy Fuels 746
15 H Bustince 123 2004 747 Mathematical Computational Biology 680
16 XH Chen 120 2003 631 Neurosciences Neurology 599
17 GH Huang 120 2002 550 Optics 591
18 YB Jun 120 2000 458 Robotics 581
19 P Melin 119 2001 453 Imaging Science 575
20 SM Chen 115 1998 427 Information Science Library Science 556
 Table 5. Results for Knowledge-Based Systems

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 ZS Xu 155 2017 4451 Computer Science 12634
2 XH Chen 107 2016 3670 Engineering 5214
3 UR Acharya 89 2015 2592 Op Research Management Science 1998
4 Y Deng 87 2014 1857 Mathematics 1287
5 F Herrera 84 2013 1306 Business Economics 1036
6 W Pedrycz 84 2018 1042 Automation Control Systems 772
7 JQ Wang 84 2012 1039 Science Technology 737
8 GW Wei 79 2011 723 Telecommunications 445
9 H Fujita 74 2010 496 Information Science Library Science 432
10 Y Zhang 74 2009 408 Environmental Sciences Ecology 396
11 E Herrera-Viedma 72 2008 314 Physics 310
12 PD Liu 71 2007 244 Energy Fuels 292
13 HY Chen 64 2006 242 Mathematical Computational Biology 259
14 LG Zhou 63 2005 210 Medical Informatics 253
15 TR Li 62 2004 199 Psychology 224
16 JM Merigó 57 2003 163 Neurosciences Neurology 213
17 H Li 55 2002 101 Instruments Instrumentation 200
18 HY Zhang 53 2001 88 Chemistry 191
19 JJ Jung 50 2000 85 Education Educational Research 191
20 FY Meng 48 1999 71 Social Sciences Other Topics 181

Table 6. Results for International Journal of Approximate Reasoning

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 ZS Xu 179 2017 1637 Computer Science 9121
2 F Herrera 141 2016 1494 Engineering 2801
3 W Pedrycz 140 2015 1399 Mathematics 2026
4 D Dubois 81 2014 1275 Op Research Management Science 1068
5 R Mesiar 80 2013 977 Automation Control Systems 614
6 E Herrera-Viedma 77 2012 942 Business Economics 408
7 RR Yager 71 2011 861 Science Technology 406
8 H Bustince 67 2010 651 Environmental Sciences Ecology 265
9 B De Baets 59 2009 598 Telecommunications 128
10 T Denoeux 59 2008 479 Mathematical Computational Biology 123
11 H Prade 58 2007 354 Instruments Instrumentation 119
12 GW Wei 58 2006 329 Physics 116
13 TR Li 51 2018 322 Robotics 113
14 L Martinez 49 2005 303 Water Resources 113
15 A Skowron 48 2004 256 Medical Informatics 109
16 YY Yao 47 2003 220 Mechanics 91
17 J Wang 47 2002 151 Energy Fuels 84
18 XH Chen 46 2001 139 Philosophy 80
19 XW Liu 46 1999 88 Geology 77
20 YH Qian 46 2000 80 Information Science Library Science 73
 Table 7. Results for Applied Soft Computing

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 W Pedrycz 135 2017 7501 Computer Science 15527
2 O Castillo 100 2016 6164 Engineering 11851
3 ZS Xu 89 2015 4855 Op Research Management Science 2880
4 XH Chen 86 2014 3656 Mathematics 2419
5 A Kumar 82 2013 2605 Automation Control Systems 1941
6 P Melin 82 2012 1760 Science Technology 1540
7 EK Zavadskas 77 2018 1687 Energy Fuels 1335
8 GW Wei 76 2011 1242 Business Economics 917
9 S Shamshirband 71 2010 678 Mechanics 903
10 A Abraham 69 2009 499 Environmental Sciences Ecology 827
11 LC Jiao 68 2008 235 Telecommunications 814
12 F Herrera 67 2007 117 Instruments Instrumentation 791
13 JQ Wang 66 2006 53 Materials Science 717
14 Y Deng 63 2005 27 Physics 642
15 PD Liu 61 2004 3 Chemistry 613
16 JM Merigó 58 Thermodynamics 589
17 JZ Wang 56 Water Resources 512
18 JZ Zhou 55 Mathematical Computational Biology 434
19 D Petkovic 55 Robotics 385
20 R Tavakkoli 53 Geology 352

Table 8. Results for International Journal of Intelligent Systems

R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total

1 ZS Xu 275 2017 1189 Computer Science 8278
2 RR Yager 177 2016 1158 Engineering 2448
3 F Herrera 147 2015 991 Mathematics 1375
4 E Herrera-Viedma 110 2014 892 Op Research Management Science 1004
5 JM Merigó 99 2013 751 Automation Control Systems 543
6 XH Chen 91 2012 651 Business Economics 463
7 W Pedrycz 85 2011 624 Science Technology 286
8 GW Wei 74 2010 529 Environmental Sciences Ecology 162
9 JQ Wang 71 2009 499 Robotics 140
10 L Martinez 68 2008 429 Information Science Library Science 120
11 H Bustince 66 2007 353 Physics 98
12 HY Chen 64 2006 347 Neurosciences Neurology 96
13 V Torra 61 2005 296 Medical Informatics 90
14 PD Liu 59 2018 270 Psychology 88
15 D Dubois 58 2003 258 Telecommunications 88
16 R Mesiar 58 2004 258 Mechanics 83
17 H Prade 57 2001 190 Social Sciences Other Topics 80
18 LG Zhou 57 2002 183 Instruments Instrumentation 73
19 XW Liu 56 1996 154 Water Resources 73
20 HC Liao 55 1997 154 Mathematical Computational Biology 64
 Table 9. Results for International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and
Knowledge-Based Systems
R Author Total Year Total Research Area Total
1 ZS Xu 140 2017 1014 Computer Science 5759
2 R Mesiar 113 2016 976 Engineering 1699
3 E Herrera-Viedma 83 2015 850 Mathematics 1466
4 JM Merigó 83 2014 775 Op Research Management Science 741
5 GW Wei 83 2013 698 Business Economics 385
6 F Herrera 69 2011 584 Automation Control Systems 317
7 BAETS De 64 2012 554 Telecommunications 245
8 V Torra 60 2009 408 Science Technology 216
9 RR Yager 60 2010 405 Environmental Sciences Ecology 137
10 W Pedrycz 59 2008 323 Mechanics 131
11 H Bustince 50 2007 261 Physics 88
12 L Martinez 49 2006 251 Medical Informatics 83
13 XH Chen 48 2018 234 Information Science Library Science 82
14 YJ Xu 46 2005 197 Transportation 61
15 MR Meybodi 44 2004 161 Instruments Instrumentation 55
16 DF Li 43 2003 146 Robotics 53
17 HW Liu 43 2002 75 Acoustics 51
18 Q Zhang 43 2001 66 Mathematical Methods in Social Sciences 50
19 JY Liang 41 1999 55 Mathematical Computational Biology 49
20 J Torrens 41 2000 55 Social Sciences Other Topics 49

3.2 Cross reference

The cross – reference analysis allows the reader to visualize the influence that each
selected journal has on the other ones. It is no surprise to see that each journal cites
itself the most e.g. ASC 2,512, ESA 7,227, etc., however, International Journal of In-
telligent Systems and International Journal of Uncertainty Fuzziness and Knowledge
Based Systems cite Fuzzy Sets and Systems more that themselves, with 643 and 701
papers respectively. In general, the journal that has been cited the most from all the
other selected journals is Information Sciences with 13,563 papers. On the other side
Expert systems with applications has cited the most with 13,338 papers.
Table 10. Cross-Reference Between Journals
J ASC ESA FSS IJAR IJIS IJUFKS IS KBS Total
ASC 2,512 1,589 930 284 257 159 1,441 476 7,648
ESA 1,118 7,227 1,375 365 343 219 1,709 982 13,338
FSS 83 130 6,081 647 472 532 2,278 73 10,296
IJAR 62 95 663 954 284 219 495 100 2,872
IJIS 79 159 643 271 535 176 501 116 2,480
IJUFKS 76 121 701 218 224 383 429 82 2,234
IS 782 1,155 2,071 735 583 419 5,714 653 12,112
KBS 450 1,044 502 335 333 179 996 1,818 5,657
Total 5,162 11,520 12,966 3,809 3,031 2,286 13,563 4,300 56,637
3.3 Top 20 authors

Table 11 presents the top 20 most influential authors based on the information dis-
played in this study. Please note that, this information applies only for the selected jour-
nals, and for the 20 first appearances for each journal, i.e. the information may vary if
a larger scale of data is retrieved or if the selection of journals is extended. It is worthy
to mention that a full examination of the names was performed, journal by journal, in
order to avoid duplicated data.

Table 11. Top 20 Most Influential Authors

R Author ASC ESA FSS IJAR IJIS IJUFKS IS KBS Total

1 ZS Xu 89 145 297 179 275 140 292 155 1572
2 W Pedrycz 135 131 547 140 85 59 383 84 1564
3 F Herrera 67 105 211 141 147 69 252 84 1076
4 RR Yager 280 71 177 60 233 821
5 XH Chen 86 134 121 46 91 48 120 107 753
E Herrera- 135 77 110 83 132 72 609
6
Viedma
7 R Mesiar 272 80 58 113 523
8 GH Huang 112 273 120 505
9 SM Chen 217 166 115 498
10 D Dubois 195 81 58 137 471
11 H Bustince 139 67 66 50 123 445
12 C Kahraman 132 157 141 430
13 H Prade 170 58 57 125 410
14 GW Wei 76 58 74 83 79 370
15 O Castillo 100 94 160 354
16 B Davvaz 154 182 336
17 P Shi 129 177 306
18 JM Merigó 58 99 83 57 297
19 Y Deng 63 110 87 260
20 B De Baets 174 59 233

4 Conclusions

The study presents a citation analysis performed for 8 different WoS indexed fuzzy
research journals. The main results are shown in three sections, the first one, shows the
individual results of each selected journal. The second presents a cross-reference jour-
nal by journal table that answers the question, which journal influences which? The
third section presents the top 20 authors of the results shown.
The individual results are categorized in 3 areas: authors, years and research areas.
The top 20 categories ranked by number of publications are displayed. In general a total
of 38,532 papers were published by the 8 selected journals, 276,487 studies were found
to cite the selected journals, and the total amount of cites gathered by the journals is
765,073 cites.
 Taking in count the search method and the journals selected, in the category of au-
thors, the largest amount of citations was exhibited by ZS Xu, W Pedrycz, and F Her-
rera. In the category of years, the most productive ones were 2017, 2016 and 2015.
Finally, in the category of research areas, Computer science, Engineering and Mathe-
matics, in that order.
The results shown in this study subscribe to an in-depth analysis of the top influenc-
ers in Fuzzy research. Future research is needed, firstly expand the number of journals
to obtain a better approach to the influencers of each category, secondly include more
categories to get a bigger picture of the data retrieved and with that a closer look to the
evolution of Fuzzy research.

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the Project supported by “Red Iberoamericana para la Compet-
itividad, Innovación y Desarrollo” (REDCID) project number 616RT0515 in “Pro-
grama Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo” (CYTED).

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