Evolution of Advanced Technology Studies: Searching for a Communication Core

The term of advanced technology is primarily associated with computer electronics and microelectronics actively developing since 1960s. Although there is no single conventional definition of the notion or specific class of technology that is associated with it, discussions on what may be considered as technical advancements in the current perspective evolve over time. As long as there is continuous interest in rise, development and dissemination of new technologies, especially from the policy-making perspective, it is important to understand which specific issues arise in professional discourse over certain time periods. This paper focuses on evolution of a communication core in academic discussions on advanced technologies identified with the use of betweenness centrality and PageRank metrics applied to a co-citation network of publications from 1960 until 2015. It is shown that there is observable penetration of the term from social sciences to natural and engineering disciplines.