=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-2869/PAPER_04
|storemode=property
|title=Exploring the potential of Distributed Ledger Technology in publication Industry - A technological review
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2869/PAPER_04.pdf
|volume=Vol-2869
|authors=Parul Khurana,Gulshan Kumar,Geetha Ganesan
}}
==Exploring the potential of Distributed Ledger Technology in publication Industry - A technological review==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2869/PAPER_04.pdf
Exploring the potential of Distributed Ledger Technology in
publication industry – A technological review
Parul Khuranaa, Gulshan Kumarb and Geetha Ganesanc
a
School of Computer Applications, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India
b
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India
c
CEO, Advanced Computing Research Society, Porur, Chennai-600116, India
Abstract
Distributed ledger technology has shown enormous growth since 2015. More than 2000
articles, and proceedings paper have been published in Web of Science. These publications
have the diversity from the leading field of Computer Science with 1626 publications in last 5
years, followed by the field of Engineering. Different organizations and funding agencies have
also supported the research work done in this field with the approval of almost 1260 block
chain based ideas. Countries like China, and USA together have published almost 922
publications in this field, followed by India and England. Different authors have tried to
experiment blockchain in areas like IOT, Healthcare, Smart contracts and supply chain
management. Among all IOT has received 304 publications in last 5 years. Various journals
have also supported the publications of blockchain based applications with IEEE Access at the
top with 169 publications, followed by its peers. Chinese academy of science has published 54
publications in this technology followed by CSIRO and Nanyang Technol University with 33
and 32 contributions. IOT has received 2905 citations followed by Healthcare which shows the
real potential of this technology. Such results have given us the benchmark to explore the
potential of this technology in the field of publication industry associated with different entities
like authors, academicians publishing their work in different indexing databases like Scopus
and Web of Science. This study presents the current evolution and scope of distributed ledger
technology in the field of citations analysis and academic publishing.
Keywords 1
Blockchain, Applications, Publication Industry
1. Introduction
Appreciation always encourages an author to contribute more for the society. A qualitative research
can lead to generations for taking an enormous benefit of the work done. An author as an individual has
the responsibility to maintain the quality, systematic phenomena and a clear purpose while doing
research in his field. A good research can attract various stakeholders like academic organizations,
government bodies, funding, accreditation and ranking agencies to appreciate and further explore the
future trends based on the performed research. A dynamic and novel research can engage these
stakeholders to define, expand and develop possible outcomes for the betterment of science and society.
To determine the quality of the research, various informetrics exists like h-index [1], cite-score,
journal impact-factor, eigen-factor etc. [2][3]. To verify the published work of an author, various
indexing databases like Scopus (https://www.scopus.com/dashboard.uri), Web of Science
(https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/solutions/web-of-science/), Microsoft Academic
(https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/academic/) and Google Scholar (
https://scholar.google.com/ ) can be used [4]. These indexing databases use their own concept of
WTEK-2021: Workshop on Technological Innovations in Education and Knowledge Dissemination, May 01, 2021, Chennai, India.
EMAIL: gitaskumar@yahoo.com (Geetha Ganesan)
ORCID: 0000-0001-7338-973X (Geetha Ganesan)
© 2021 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
32
indexing which results into different informetrics for same author across different indexing databases.
To combine these indexing databases and deliver a unified informetrics system, we can explore the
feasibility of distributed ledger technology in the publication industry.
Ledgers are the core of trade from early times and are utilized to store many transactions, most
ordinarily belongings such as property and currency. They were stimulated to log on clay tablets to
paper, vellum and papyrus. However, the merely prominent novelty is observed in computerization,
which originally was an assignment from manuscript to bytes. Systems assist concerted formation of
digital ledgers with features and abilities that goes beyond from customary manual ledgers. A
distributed ledger is basically a data bank that can be accessed across a system of multiple layouts or
organizations. All members within a linkage may carry identical copy of the ledger personally. Any
update to ledger is reflected everywhere in seconds. The entities can be monetary, lawful, or physical
[5].
Different applications of distributed ledger technology may include enhancement of government
services, providing benefits like passports and recording property deeds, improving healthcare through
enhancement of services and protected distribution of medical histories as well as records, refining
facilities that trust greatly on transactions where such dealings are slow, exclusive and dependent upon
mediators, using ‘smart contracts’ to expand many divisions like nourishment, liveliness,
pharmaceuticals, aeronautics, communications, transportation etc., facilitating fair compensation in
fashion industries, improving business and expertise replicas in the Internet of Things, improving
personality administration, where identity is safe and portable, applications in economic services,
efficient business structure, and hazard management and promising the truthfulness of arrangements
and mechanisms in composite organizations [6].
A distributed ledger is a data bank believed and accessed autonomously by every contributor
involved in a huge system. The allotment is exclusive and records are held and autonomously
constructed by each node [7]. A block acts as a page of a register or record book. It is thus a stable
collection of records which, once engraved, cannot be reformed or removed. The blocks are
supplemented to the chain in a direct, sequential order. Chain structure permanently timestamp’s and
stores exchange of value, preventing anyone from altering the ledger [8]. Each block’s record indicates
at minimum one transaction; however, many effective transactions can be characterized in a single
block. Every transaction record (ledger entry) is connected to preceding transactions and is consistent
for every contributing node. Every ledger entry is retraceable through its complete antiquity and can be
remodeled [9].
In this paper we would like to explore the potential of distributed ledger technology to propose a
system which can help its stakeholders to record the actual research potential of the associated author.
Proposed system will use the concept of citation analysis with distributed ledger technology to
improvise the existing system [10]. Citation analysis will provide a system to analyse the importance
of the research work of an author so that the research credibility of the author may be measured. During
citation analysis, citations received by the author may be analysed for the final citation count required
to calculate unified informetrics. Citation analysis helps to identify the similarities between the research
work done by different authors, it also helps to identify self citations or repeated citations in the research
work, an impact of author in his discipline and field can also be evaluated accordingly.
The complete work has been divided into three research-based questions as follows:
1. What is the evolution of blockchain-based applications over time?
2. How are blockchain-enabled technologies have emerged in various sectors of society?
3. How do we evaluate the blockchain applicability in publication industry?
33
2. Data Selection
To provide a comprehensive literature review of blockchain-based applications, we have used Web
of Science as a main scientific database. We searched the term “blockchain based applications in the
month of Oct, 2020 and the executed query returns 2598 results. These results have the publication year
range from 2015 to 2020. Out of 2598 results, we have analyzed that 376 papers are review papers on
blockchain, whereas 95 papers are not directly linked with blockchain. Rest of 2127 papers were based
on blockchain based applications. We analyzed those papers on the basis of their type, year, country,
affiliation, journal, research area, funding, and technical area of publication.
We have used 2127 papers to frame 3 primary research questions of our work. These questions were
answered with the analysis of identified papers and the 7 patent documents downloaded from
https://patents.google.com/, and https://worldwide.espacenet.com/.
Figure 1 shows the data selection and filtration process as follows:
Figure 1: shows the data selection and filtration process of 2127 publication from 2015 to 2020.
3. Results
3.1. Number of documents – Year and type wise
Figure 2 shows the year wise publication details of the blockchain based applications. In 2015, we
can see the existence of blockchain based applications with a very low publication count of 4, but from
2016 onwards we can observe a continuous hike in the publications. In 2016, it was 36, in 2017, it was
179, in 2018, it was jumped to 627 and reaching the milestone of 1000+ publications in 2019. 2020 has
seen a bit of downward flow with publication count of 685 as well. These publications were from
different categories like articles, book review, editorial material, letters, meeting abstracts, proceedings
paper and review. The major contribution year wise can be seen from proceedings papers which is
47.8% followed by articles contributing to 43.9% of the total publications from the year 2015 to 2020.
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Figure 2: shows the number of documents published from 2015 to 2020. Documents are of different
types like article, book review, editorial material, letter, meeting abstract, proceedings paper and
reviews. Different categories of documents are presented with year wise detail of publication.
Number of documents – Country wise – Top 10
Figure 3 shows the country wise contribution of authors contributed in blockchain based
applications. In total authors from 93 countries worldwide have contributed with China at the top with
maximum publications of 500+. Followed by USA with 400+ publications, India, England, Australia,
Germany, and Korea with 100+ publications. Italy, Canada, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Japan with 50+
publications. France, Singapore, Brazil, Netherlands, Pakistan, Switzerland, Portugal, Romania,
Greece, Arabia, Ireland, Austria, Emirates, Malaysia with 20+ publications. Denmark, Turkey, Norway,
Poland, Thailand, Finland, Sweden, Scotland, Qatar, Slovenia, Croatia, Vietnam, Egypt, Israel,
Bulgaria, Colombia, Estonia with 10+ publications. Indonesia, Cyprus, Ukraine, South Korea, Belgium,
Bangladesh, Slovakia, Malta, Hungary, Lebanon, Wales, Morocco, Jordan, Latvia, Mexico,
Philippines, Iran, Africa, Tunisia, Zealand, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Republic, Serbia, Macedonia,
Ecuador, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Ghana, Herceg, Oman, Nigeria, Lanka, Peru, Venezuela,
Cambodia, Chile, Iceland, Czech Republic, Namibia, Iraq, Leone, Mauritius, Liechtenstein, Bolivia,
Belarus, Tobago, Faso with less than 10 publications each.
Figure 3: shows the number of documents contributed by different countries. In total 93, countries
have contributed and we have presented the data of Top 10 countries worldwide with the number of
documents published – country wise.
Number of documents – Organization wise – Top 10
Figure 4 shows the contribution of Top 10 organizations working on the blockchain based
applications. In total 2668 organizations worldwide are contributing in blockchain based applications.
Out of which Chinese Academy Science is leading with 50+ contributions, followed by CSIRO,
Nanyang Technol University, and Beijing Univ Posts & Telecommun with 30+ contributions. Tsinghua
35
Univ, Peking Univ, Univ Elect Sci & Technol China, King Saud Univ, Old Dominion Univ, Beihang
Univ, Wuhan Univ, Univ Texas San Antonio, and Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ with 20+ contributions.
Figure 4: shows the number of documents based on different organizations participated in the
publication under block chain application based category. In total 2668 organizations are involved
worldwide and we have presented Top 10 organizations from the list.
3.2. Number of documents – Journal wise
Figure 5 shows the journal wise contribution for blockchain based applications. In total 696 journals
have published the blockchain applications-based work from 2015 to 2020. With IEEE Access at the
top, it has 150+ publications, followed by Lect Notes Comput Sc with 50+ publications, Sensors-Basel
with 40+ publications, Future Gener Comp Sy, and Ieee Internet Things with 30+ publications.
Sustainability-Basel With 20+ publications and Appl Sci-Basel, Int J Adv Comput Sc, Electronics-
Switz, Future Internet, Adv Comput, Energies, Adv Intell Syst, Ieee T Veh Technol, Int C Par Distrib
Sy, Ieee Trans Comput So, Comm Com Inf Sc, Int Con Distr Comp S, Ieee Network, Procedia Comput
Sci, J Phys Conf Ser, Lect Notes Bus Inf P, J Netw Comput Appl, Ieee Icc, Ieee T Ind Inform, Ieee
Commun Surv Tut, J Med Internet Res, Ieee Glob Comm Conf, Comput Commun with 10+
publications.
Figure 5: shows the number of documents published by different journals. We have presented Top 10
journals who have rigorously published the work based on block chain based applications. In total 696
journals have published the work based on block chain applications.
Number of documents – research area wise
Figure 6 shows the impact of blockchain in 10 research areas. Primarily all documents have been
divided into 10 categories such as Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Business, Economics and
Management, Computer Science, Education, Engineering, Environmental Sciences,
Food Science & Technology, Health and Medical Sciences, Social Sciences, Telecommunications.
36
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Food Science & Technology has received minimum
publications across 5 years as compared to other disciplines. Education, Environmental Sciences,
Health and Medical Sciences and Telecommunications have shown the average 9, 13, 13, and 11
publications from year 2015 to 2020. Social Sciences and Business, Economics and Management have
received 100+ contributions as compared to other research areas. Computer Science is at top with 1500+
contributions followed by 400+ contributions in Engineering. Computer science is the only field which
has received contributions in all the years starting from 2015 to 2020 with an average of 233
contributions per year.
Figure 6: shows the number of documents published research area wise. Complete dataset is
categorized into 10 different research areas and based on the categories of Web of Science, all
publications have been segregated.
3.3. Number of documents – funding agency wise
Figure 7 shows the number of documents which have received funding from different agencies. Out
of 2127 publications, 1266 have received funding from different agencies which is almost 50% of the
total contribution. 50% funding also depicts that there is an extensive support by different agencies for
the evolution and growth of blockchain based applications. 2019 is the most successful year with almost
500 contributions receiving funding from the agencies, followed by 300+ in 2020 and 200+ in 2018.
Figure 7: shows the number of documents received funding from year 2015 to 2020. Almost 50% have
received the funding from different sources which signifies that agencies are looking forward towards
research based on block chain based applications.
3.4. Number of documents – technical area wise
Figure 8 shows the technical areas which are emerged with the boom of blockchain. IOT has
received maximum contributions with the overall count of 300+ out of 2127 contributions. Followed
by Healthcare, Smart Contracts, Supply chain, Networking, Cryptocurrency, Cloud Computing,
37
Security, Edge Computing, Education, Business Applications, Finance, and Medical Records with 20+
contributions at least. E-voting, Energy systems, Mobile Environment, Cybersecurity, 5G, Artificial
intelligence, Privacy Issues, Digital signature, Privacy Management, and Fog computing have received
10+ contributions each.
Figure 8: shows the number of documents segregated into different technical areas wise. Although
we have observed the block chain based work into number of research areas, we have plotted the Top
10 areas who have received significant response in context with block chain. IOT has received the top
contributions from 2015 to 2020.
3.5. Number of citations – technical area wise
Figure 9 shows the number of citations received by the different technical areas. Review based
papers have received almost 3900+ citations, followed by IOT with 2900+ citations, Healthcare with
900+ citations, Smart Contracts with 400+ citations, Cryptography with 400+ citations, Supply chain
and Decentralized Digital Currencies with 300+ citations, Cloud Computing and Edge Computing with
200+ citations. Chemical Industry, Networking, Cloud Environment, Mobile Edge Computing,
Automotive Security and Privacy, Cryptocurrency, Distributed ledger technology, Cybersecurity,
Smart City, Transportation Systems, Smart Cities Applications, Energy systems, Privacy policies,
Architecture Design, Banking Industry, and Information sharing with 100+ citations each. Among top
10 with number of contributions received technical area wise, we can see that Cryptocurrency and
Security technical areas are in the top 10 when we compile the results – with number of publications
but when we sort the results citations wise – we can see that both have received less number of citations
as compared to peer technical areas.
Figure 9: shows the number of citations received by different technical areas. Block chain has shown
his emergence in almost all the areas worldwide. We have plotted the Top 10 areas who have received
the significant number of citations as compared with overall data.
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3.6. Relevant work and encouragement
In the work titled as “Contribution of multiparty data aggregation using distributed ledger
technology “, authors have presented the framework to identify the items of information with the record
of entity requesting the information. This is proposed with the concept of distributed ledger technology.
Multiparty data signifies the contribution and segregation of data from multiple sources. After studying
the research work done by the authors, we can conclude that there is a good prospective of using
distributed ledger technology in publication industry. Presented work does not directly supports the
publication industry but it definitely resembles to the framework which is required to be built on the
concept of acknowledging the contribution of multiple indexing databases [11]. In the prospects of
blockchain and distributed ledger technologies for open science and academic publishing, authors have
used the concept of blockchain and smart contracts in academic publishing. They have identified
concrete use cases to prepare an informal model for required setup. This research work is directly
contributing and supporting the need of using distributed ledger technology in the publication industry.
Authors have significantly explored the prospects of DLT in academic publishing. A unique idea is also
provided with the concept of possible use cases while integrating the DLT in academic publishing [12].
In one of the works related to Intellectual property asset management system using distributed ledger
technology, authors have presented the system to manage different assets associated with Intellectual
Property. Authors have used the concept of distributed ledger technology to generate DLT based
records. In this study of intellectual property asset management, we have found that we can manage
different indexing databases just as a routine of intellectual property assets. This idea supports our
pattern of using the concept of taking the research inputs of author from multiple assets like Scopus and
Web of Science [13]. In the paper titled as “Systems, devices, and methods for Dlt-based data
management platforms and data products”, authors have tried to preserve the benefits of distributed
ledger technology which can be used to handle and manage the private sharing of the data. This study
in the field of distributed ledger technology also supports our work. We also have systems which are
connected across multiple indexing databases. We also want to provide a unified system based on
distributed ledger technology to provide a composite data product [14]. In “Unified identification
protocol in training and health”, authors have presented an idea for the unique identification of entities
with the help of distributed ledger technology. Uniquely identified data may be stored in one or more
devices or on cloud services with the help of distributed ledger or blockchain technologies. This study
supports our idea of using distributed ledger technology in academic publishing industry directly.
Authors have integrated the concept of training and health whereas we are trying to integrate the concept
of publications and citations [15]. In “Scholarly publishing on the blockchain – from smart papers to
smart informetrics”, authors have used the concept of smart papers in publication industry. They have
proposed the mechanism of decentralized publishing and the calculation of informetrics on the basis of
citations counts. This work directly supports our idea of using distributed ledger technology in academic
publishing. Authors have used their own concept of consideration of scholarly publishing of articles.
They have tried to convert smart papers into smart informetrics. In similar way, we are also trying to
utilize smart informetrics rather smart unified informetrics based on article and citation count of an
author [16].
4. Conclusion
This study provides insight and meaningful implications regarding use of distributed ledger
technology in the academic publishing industry. We have studied the trend of distributed ledger
technology in last 5 years. How this technology is being encouraged by different countries, different
organizations, and different journals. How blockchain is being mashed up with the key technical areas
of these days. Such results have shown the significant impact of this technology in the society and has
also increased the societal value of the key technical areas like IOT after being merged with distributed
ledger technology. Few patent ideas and few implementations in academic publishing have also given
us the boom to experiment with this technology in the field of research publication industry. Calculated
results have shown us the significant scope of this technology to prove its potential in different key
technical areas in the current trend.
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We further recommend to explore the capabilities and limitations of distributed ledger technology
in the different key technical areas and to explore the concept of Gamification in the academic
publishing industry as well.
5. Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Dr. Kiran Sharma, Northwestern University, USA for her help in data extraction and
feedback and Ms. Sofia for her support.
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