Exploration of Shared Themes Between Food Security and Internet of Things Research Through Literature-Based Discovery

Cristian Mejia; Yuya Kajikawa

doi:10.3389/frma.2021.652285

Exploration of Shared Themes Between Food Security and Internet of Things Research Through Literature-Based Discovery

Front Res Metr Anal. 2021 May 13:6:652285. doi: 10.3389/frma.2021.652285. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Cristian Mejia¹, Yuya Kajikawa^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan.
² Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

This paper applied a literature-based discovery methodology utilizing citation networks and text mining in order to extract and represent shared terminologies found in disjoint academic literature on food security and the Internet of Things. The topic of food security includes research on improvements in nutrition, sustainable agriculture, and a plurality of other social challenges, while the Internet of Things refers to a collection of technologies from which solutions can be drawn. Academic articles on both topics were classified into subclusters, and their text contents were compared against each other to find shared terms. These terms formed a network from which clusters of related keywords could be identified, potentially easing the exploration of common themes. Thirteen transversal themes, including blockchain, healthcare, and air quality, were found. This method can be applied by policymakers and other stakeholders to understand how a given technology could contribute to solving a pressing social issue.

Keywords: Internet of Things; SDGs; citation networks; food security; literature-based discovery; poverty alleviation; text mining.