purpose: this paper proposes a method of detecting emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective.

design/methodology/approach: through co-word clustering to identify research topics and analyzing position changes of topic words in the keywords life-cycle diagram during different time periods, we detected emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective. the method was applied to the field of nanotechnology to verify its effectiveness and practicability.

findings: the results show that this method can be used to detect emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective, as it divides keywords into five categories: potential keywords, emerging keywords, hot keywords, stable keywords and recession keywords, through which more details of topic changes can be found.

research limitations: we used keywords provided by authors and database indexers for keywords extraction. but this approach may lead to the problem of "indexer effect". the method may have a limited effect when applied to a disciplinary domain such as mathematics, which evolves slowly.

practical implications: this study provides information analysts with insights into the way to better understand specialty areas of a discipline domain and formulate research policies and strategic plans.

originality/value: this study contributes to the current literature by proposing a new method, which can detect emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective.

purpose: this paper proposes a method of detecting emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective.

design/methodology/approach: through co-word clustering to identify research topics and analyzing position changes of topic words in the keywords life-cycle diagram during different time periods, we detected emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective. the method was applied to the field of nanotechnology to verify its effectiveness and practicability.

findings: the results show that this method can be used to detect emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective, as it divides keywords into five categories: potential keywords, emerging keywords, hot keywords, stable keywords and recession keywords, through which more details of topic changes can be found.

research limitations: we used keywords provided by authors and database indexers for keywords extraction. but this approach may lead to the problem of "indexer effect". the method may have a limited effect when applied to a disciplinary domain such as mathematics, which evolves slowly.

practical implications: this study provides information analysts with insights into the way to better understand specialty areas of a discipline domain and formulate research policies and strategic plans.

originality/value: this study contributes to the current literature by proposing a new method, which can detect emerging trends in research topics from a more micro perspective.