Metamaterials research has been ongoing for more than 20 years and it has gained much public and scientific interest. There have been many experts forecasting on the road ahead for metamaterials, notably, in lieu of “knowledge tree” in 2010. Ten years on, it is proposed to re‐examine these claims by using automated computer tools, such as natural language processing (NLP), to extract research information for processing and analyzing from unstructured texts in publications. In this study, a fully auto‐generated database of 43 678 abstracts related to metamaterials published between 2000 and 2021 using Scopus Search API (Application Programming Interface) is built. Applying word embedding, each keyword is studied in a hyperdimensional vector space and clusters so that their relationships can be visualized for assessing the popularity and trends of research themes. A neural network model developed based on the encoder–decoder long short‐term memory (LSTM) architecture is finally trained to predict future directions and theme evolutions in the next four years for selected topics. This study not only provides vital information in terms of impact of metamaterials research but also lays down a solid foundation for the development of future metamaterial research roadmap in the form of Gartner hype cycle.
Young‐Ok Cha and Yang Hao have analyzed all published papers on metamaterials and extracted over 3000 keywords reflecting main research topics (see article number 2102444). The authors categorized them into eight key thematic areas depending on their entities. The cover image shows a graph network visualization to reveal hidden links of connected research topics as nodes and the size of each node implies the volume of each research topics.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.