Digital technologies have become a core instrument for advancing green, low-carbon development. To address fragmented, cross-disciplinary evidence on where and how these tools deliver measurable efficiency gains, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 2082 Web of Science records using a reproducible toolchain and a unified terminology policy. The analysis quantified citation baselines, mapped clustered co-occurrence structures, and detected burst-driven trend evolution. The findings reveal a compact core of authors and hub institutions, a three-phase progression from measurement digitization to process digitalization and AI-enabled digital innovation, and a divergence between publication volume from per-article influence via average citation scores. The scientific value-added lies in integrating these hotspots and trends into interpretable maps that link areas of concentrated impact to existing gaps. Future efforts should prioritize interoperable data infrastructure and outcome-based incentives, scale high-return use cases through digital twins governed by large models, and establish open, replicable benchmarks to accelerate translation to measurable efficiency gains.
Citation: Wanchang Chen, Xue Zhang, Youqing Fan, Kai Yang, Hua Wang, Qingtai Xiao. Bibliometric investigation of energy efficiency improvement from digitalization to smart efficiency[J]. AIMS Energy, 2025, 13(5): 1167-1194. doi: 10.3934/energy.2025043
Digital technologies have become a core instrument for advancing green, low-carbon development. To address fragmented, cross-disciplinary evidence on where and how these tools deliver measurable efficiency gains, this study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 2082 Web of Science records using a reproducible toolchain and a unified terminology policy. The analysis quantified citation baselines, mapped clustered co-occurrence structures, and detected burst-driven trend evolution. The findings reveal a compact core of authors and hub institutions, a three-phase progression from measurement digitization to process digitalization and AI-enabled digital innovation, and a divergence between publication volume from per-article influence via average citation scores. The scientific value-added lies in integrating these hotspots and trends into interpretable maps that link areas of concentrated impact to existing gaps. Future efforts should prioritize interoperable data infrastructure and outcome-based incentives, scale high-return use cases through digital twins governed by large models, and establish open, replicable benchmarks to accelerate translation to measurable efficiency gains.
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Wanchang Chen, Xue Zhang, Youqing Fan, Kai Yang, Hua Wang, Qingtai Xiao. Bibliometric investigation of energy efficiency improvement from digitalization to smart efficiency[J]. AIMS Energy, 2025, 13(5): 1167-1194. doi: 10.3934/energy.2025043
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