Jianlin Yan, Zhirui Mu, Wenjiang Zheng

Center for Strategic Studies, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Beijing 100088, China

An engineering front is a key direction in engineering that is forward looking,cutting edge,and exploratory.It plays a leading role in the future development of engineering science and technology,serving as an important guide for innovation in engineering science and technology.According to its innovation stage,an engineering front is categorized into either an engineering research front, which focuses on theoretical exploration, or an engineering development front, which focuses on the practical application of engineering science and technology [1,2].

To track development trends in engineering science and technology, the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE)—relying on its nine academic divisions and academic journals, and in collaboration with the Clarivate data analysis team—has been organizing a project known as the Global Engineering Fronts every year since 2017.This research identifies and releases a list of nearly 200 engineering research fronts and engineering development fronts every year in order to guide academic development and promote innovation in engineering science and technology.

The research for the Global Engineering Fronts is carried out via multi-round interaction and iterative selection between experts and data.The data sources used in engineering research front selection are Science Citation Index(SCI)journal papers and conference papers in the Web of Science database,and the data sources used in engineering development front selection are Derwent Innovation patent retrieval data.The basic process of Global Engineering Fronts selection includes: ① data preparation, in which subject-area experts and library and information experts conduct paper retrieval and patent-data retrieval based on the technical systems of each subject area; ②data analysis, in which co-citation clustering is used to create literature clustering topics and co-word clustering is used to form patent maps, in order to identify cutting-edge topics;and ③expert review,in which cutting-edge topic screening,cutting-edge name revision, expert seminars, and other methods are used to gradually screen the data to determine cutting-edge fronts.To compensate for a lack of cutting-edge topics due to the limitations of data-mining algorithms or data lag, domain experts are encouraged to modify, merge, and expand the cutting-edge topics based on quantitative analysis results.

In the 2023 Global Engineering Fronts,a total of 93 engineering research fronts and 94 engineering development fronts have been selected in nine fields: mechanical and vehicle engineering; information and electronic engineering; chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering; energy and mining engineering; civil,hydraulic, and architectural engineering; environmental and light textile engineering; agriculture; medicine and health; and engineering management (Tables 1-9).

Table 1Fronts in mechanical and vehicle engineering.

Table 2Fronts in information and electronic engineering.

Table 3Fronts in chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering.

Table 4Fronts in energy and mining engineering.

Table 5Fronts in civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering.

Table 6Fronts in environmental and light textile engineering.

Table 7Fronts in agriculture.

Table 8Fronts in medicine and health.

Table 9Fronts in engineering management.

We would like to give our thanks to all the experts and staff involved in the 2023 Global Engineering Fronts project.We are grateful for the strong support from Higher Education Press,Clarivate, the editorial departments of the nine journals of the CAE, the CAE Center for Strategic Studies, the China Knowledge Center for Engineering Science and Technology, the offices of the academic divisions of the CAE, Harbin Medical University, East China University of Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,Zhejiang University,Tianjin University,Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, Tsinghua University,China Agricultural University,Ruijin Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, and the China Engineering Sciences Press Co., Ltd.