Article from a FAPESP-supported center is among the ten most cited in Latin America

CeMEAI research provides a bibliometric analysis of authors, journals, research institutions, countries and keywords found in 27,750 Web of Science documents.

Agência FAPESP* – A paper supported by the Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry (CeMEAI) is one of the ten most cited scientific publications in the field of physics in Latin America. This is stated in the study “Scientific production in Latin American physics: A bibliometric analysis”, published in Springer Nature Link. 

CeMEAI is a Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center (RIDC) supported by FAPESP and based at the Institute of Mathematical and Computer Science of the University of São Paulo (ICMC-USP), São Carlos campus, Brazil.

The Springer Link study ranks the article “The Kuramoto model in complex networks”, by the authors Francisco Rodrigues and Thomas Peron, both from ICMC-USP, Peng Ji, from Fudan University (China), and Jürgen Kurths, from the Potsdam Institut (Germany), in 10th place among all the articles published in physics by Latin American scientists between 2013 and 2022.

The research provides a bibliometric analysis of authors, journals, research institutions, countries and keywords found in 27,750 Web of Science documents.

Peron says that this work began in 2013 when he started his Ph.D in the area of oscillator dynamics in complex networks. “At the time, this was already a very active area in the large field of complex networks, and for this reason, I felt the need to organize articles to support my thesis. Francisco Rodrigues, my advisor at the time, suggested turning my study into an article and publishing it. To our surprise, in January 2016, our article was already in Elsevier’s journal Physics Reports. What this recent bibliographic study shows us is that it’s become an important tool not only for my Ph.D. but also for many other academics who also study complex systems, from social and physical systems to biological and technological systems,” says the researcher.

“We discovered many relevant topics, including a description of the most commonly used analytical approaches and the analysis of various numerical results. In addition, we discuss recent developments in variations of Kuramoto’s model in networks, including the presence of noise and inertia. The rich potential for applications in particular areas of engineering, neuroscience, physics and Earth sciences is discussed. We also discuss problems that have remained open since before 2016 and which have been the subject of intense research on Kuramoto’s model. And finally, we point out some promising directions for future research,” explains Thomas.

Rodrigues is the lead author of this paper and commented on being among the ten most cited. “I was surprised because out of almost 28,000 articles, it’s impressive that ours is the 10th. This shows several things, such as the importance of studying complex systems, the excellence of USP, ICMC and CeMEAI. It also shows that we’re on the right track and at the forefront of knowledge, contributing to scientific knowledge on a global scale,” he concludes.

* With information from CeMEAI.