Discover the Properties of Emerging Research Areas Using Meta-Synthesis Method

Detection of emergence research areas is an important issue for science and technology policy makers and researchers. Despite the importance of this subject, there is no comprehensive study to define the emergence and metrics that needed for its detection. In this study, we selected 1833 papers from web of science (WOS) that are published between 1970 and 2017. Then we used meta-synthesis method on 68 finalized papers that are completely related to the purpose of this research and extracted several metrics. Generalizability, innovation and penetration are the extracted construct. We also extracted 9 concept and 29 codes related to each metric. We also come up with a definition for emergence research area which is "the emergence research area is highly important and novel area that born very fast and have great impact on related research areas and also can attract researchers and other influencers of science".