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Science mapping aims to build bibliometric maps that describe how specific disciplines, scientific domains, or research fields are conceptually, intellectually, and socially structured. Different techniques and software tools have been proposed to carry out science mapping analysis. The aim of this article is to review, analyze, and compare some of these software tools, taking into account aspects such as the bibliometric techniques available and the different kinds of analysis.

This article presents a new open‐source software tool, SciMAT, which performs science mapping analysis within a longitudinal framework. It provides different modules that help the analyst to carry out all the steps of the science mapping workflow. In addition, SciMAT presents three key features that are remarkable in respect to other science mapping software tools: (a) a powerful preprocessing module to clean the raw bibliographical data, (b) the use of bibliometric measures to study the impact of each studied element, and (c) a wizard to configure the analysis.

Inspired by mammalian skins, soft hybrids integrating the merits of elastomers and hydrogels have potential applications in diverse areas including stretchable and bio-integrated electronics, microfluidics, tissue engineering, soft robotics and biomedical devices. However, existing hydrogel–elastomer hybrids have limitations such as weak interfacial bonding, low robustness and difficulties in patterning microstructures. Here, we report a simple yet versatile method to assemble hydrogels and elastomers into hybrids with extremely robust interfaces (interfacial toughness over 1,000 Jm−2) and functional microstructures such as microfluidic channels and electrical circuits. The proposed method is generally applicable to various types of tough hydrogels and diverse commonly used elastomers including polydimethylsiloxane Sylgard 184, polyurethane, latex, VHB and Ecoflex. We further demonstrate applications enabled by the robust and microstructured hydrogel–elastomer hybrids including anti-dehydration hydrogel–elastomer hybrids, stretchable and reactive hydrogel–elastomer microfluidics, and stretchable hydrogel circuit boards patterned on elastomer.

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In decision making, in order to avoid misleading solutions, the study of consistency when the decision makers express their opinions by means of preference relations becomes a very important aspect. In decision making problems based on fuzzy preference relations the study of consistency is associated with the study of the transitivity property. In this paper, a new characterization of the consistency property defined by the additive transitivity property of the fuzzy preference relations is presented. Using this new characterization a method for constructing consistent fuzzy preference relations from a set of n-1 preference data is proposed. Applying this method it is possible to assure better consistency of the fuzzy preference relations provided by the decision makers, and in such a way, to avoid the inconsistent solutions in the decision making processes. Additionally, a similar study of consistency is developed for the case of multiplicative preference relations.

The h-index and some related bibliometric indices have received a lot of attention from the scientific community in the last few years due to some of their good properties (easiness of computation, balance between quantity of publications and their impact and so on). Many different indicators have been developed in order to extend and overcome the drawbacks of the original Hirsch proposal. In this contribution we present a comprehensive review on the h-index and related indicators field. From the initial h-index proposal we study their main advantages, drawbacks and the main applications that we can find in the literature. A description of many of the h-related indices that have been developed along with their main characteristics and some of the works that analyze and compare them are presented. We also review the most up to date standardization studies that allow a fair comparison by means of the h-index among scientists from different research areas and finally, some works that analyze the computation of the h-index and related indices by using different citation databases (ISI Citation Indexes, Google Scholar and Scopus) are introduced.

Hydrogels are polymer networks infiltrated with water. Many biological hydrogels in animal bodies such as muscles, heart valves, cartilages, and tendons possess extreme mechanical properties including being extremely tough, strong, resilient, adhesive, and fatigue-resistant. These mechanical properties are also critical for hydrogels' diverse applications ranging from drug delivery, tissue engineering, medical implants, wound dressings, and contact lenses to sensors, actuators, electronic devices, optical devices, batteries, water harvesters, and soft robots. Whereas numerous hydrogels have been developed over the last few decades, a set of general principles that can rationally guide the design of hydrogels using different materials and fabrication methods for various applications remain a central need in the field of soft materials. This review is aimed at synergistically reporting: (i) general design principles for hydrogels to achieve extreme mechanical and physical properties, (ii) implementation strategies for the design principles using unconventional polymer networks, and (iii) future directions for the orthogonal design of hydrogels to achieve multiple combined mechanical, physical, chemical, and biological properties. Because these design principles and implementation strategies are based on generic polymer networks, they are also applicable to other soft materials including elastomers and organogels. Overall, the review will not only provide comprehensive and systematic guidelines on the rational design of soft materials, but also provoke interdisciplinary discussions on a fundamental question: why does nature select soft materials with unconventional polymer networks to constitute the major parts of animal bodies? CONTENTS