Competing, complementary and co-existing paradigms in techno-scientific literature:A case study of Nanotechnologyfor engineering

Nanotechnology is a research field that has potential to drive the progress of mankind for the next few decades. Its application is found in every discipline, ranging from material science to space communication. Owing to its potential for ubiquity, and capability of replacing many general purpose technologies, co-existence of several paradigms are expected in nanotechnology. Flow Vergence (FV) gradient has been recently introduced as a metric to mine the network of scientific literature for detecting the paradigm shifts. In this paper, we have performed citation network analysis of scientific publications in nanotechnology from research area engineering' for identification of paradigms related to the same. Flow vergence gradient revealed 18 subnetworks that deal with 25 likely pivots of paradigm shifts. Major paradigm shifts can be found in the field of targeted drug delivery. Nanonetworks, a crossover of IT, BT and nanotechnology is the another interesting paradigm shift identified. An extended subnetwork analysis has been conducted to identify the competing or complementary nature of the emerging paradigms in the subnetworks. A framework for this has also been introduced. This analysis revealed that most of the paradigms in the targeted delivery are competing paradigms. Complementary paradigms are also identified in nano electronics and targeted drug delivery. Policy implications from this identification for various target groups are also discussed.