Approximately 90% of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) lacks a year-round road network, with 73% of existing roads being either seasonal or dependent on ice crossings. Moreover, transportation in Yakutia depends on a small number of vital transport rout...
Approximately 90% of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) lacks a year-round road network, with 73% of existing roads being either seasonal or dependent on ice crossings. Moreover, transportation in Yakutia depends on a small number of vital transport routes for both internal and external connectivity, including rivers, ice roads, crossings, and the Northern Sea Route (NSR). To develop each transportation mode, numerous studies were analyzed. However, there is no study suggested for the overall research trend for Yakutia transportation. Consequently, this study aimed to extract the research trends in Yakutia transport within the logistics field by employing Social Network Analysis (SNA) on a corpus of international research publications using "Sakha transport" as the keyword. The findings of this analysis are presented below. The degree centrality analysis of Yakutia transportation research yielded the following primary results: The highest-ranking keyword was "Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation" (0.304). "Infrastructure" (0.240) and "Road transport" (0.152) emerged as the second and third most central keywords, respectively. Secondly, the results of the betweenness centrality that are consistent with the degree centrality analysis, "Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation" (0.240) and "Infrastructure" (0.209) occupy the first and second positions, respectively. These are followed by "Indigenous" (0.096) and "Northern Sea Route" (0.089) in the third and fourth positions. Thirdly, the closeness centrality analysis yielded results congruent with other centrality measures for the top two positions: "Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation" (0.362) and "Infrastructure" (0.356). Notably, "climate" emerged as a joint second- place keyword. As a result of the analysis of degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality on research related to Yakutia transportation, all three analysis results showed that the first place was the “Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation”, and the second place was “Infrastructure”. First of all, the reason why "Artic Zone of the Russian Federation" emerged as the most important research keyword in transportation research in the Yakutia is the geographical connection with the Arctic region, the importance of climate change and transportation infrastructure to develop new transportation routes, the importance of resource development and economic importance, and the Russian government's policy and strategic interest. Meanwhile, "infrastructure" emerged as the second most important keyword because of poor transportation infrastructure improvement, the need for mineral and resource transportation, and the importance related to railroad and road network development. Keywords: Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Transportation, Research trend, Social Network Analysis (SNA), Degree centrality, Betweenness centrality, Closeness centrality