July 24, 2023
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Article

Mind the gap: The AURORAL ecosystem for the digital transformation of smart communities and rural areas

Publicated to: Technology In Society. 74 102304- - 2023-08-01 74(), DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2023.102304

Authors:

Gómez-Carmona, O; Buján-Carballal, D; Casado-Mansilla, D; López-de-Ipiña, D; Cano-Benito, J; Cimmino, A; Poveda-Villalón, M; García-Castro, R; Almela-Miralles, J; Apostolidis, D; Drosou, A; Tzovaras, D; Wagner, M; Guadalupe-Rodriguez, M; Salinas, D; Esteller, D; Riera-Rovira, M; González, A; Clavijo-Agreda, J; Díez-Frias, A; Bocanegra-Yáñez, MD; Pedro-Henriques, R; Ferreira-Nunes, E; Luxi, M; Bujalkova, N
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Affiliations

AIGUASOL Enginyeria - Author
AIGUASOL, Barcelona 08009, Spain - Author
Atos Res & Innovat, Madrid 28037, Spain - Author
Atos Research and Innovation - Author
BAvenir - Author
bAvenir sro, Bratislava 82105, Slovakia - Author
Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas - Author
Ctr Res & Technol Hellas, Thessaloniki 57001, Greece - Author
Elliot Cloud - Author
Elliot Cloud, Logrono 26001, Spain - Author
IrRADIARE - Author
IrRADIARE, P-1495091 Lisbon, Portugal - Author
LuxActive - Author
LuxActive, A-1100 Vienna, Austria - Author
Univ Deusto, Bilbao 48007, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid UPM, Madrid 28660, Spain - Author
universidad de deusto - Author
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - Author
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Abstract

Rural areas play a crucial role in addressing challenges related to climate change, food provision, biomass, and energy. At the same time, digital solutions have proven essential in improving safety, quality of life, and resilience in daily life. However, the lower population density and the lack of digital infrastructure in such rural areas make it difficult to develop technology-driven private businesses and public services. This can negatively impact socio-economic indicators and hinder the development of new services to cover peoples’ needs. For this reason, in this document, we seek to provide a stronger focus on rural regions in digitalization efforts and create new opportunities for rural communities. For that, we analyze the barriers and needs of the rural environment and present AURORAL, a digital service platform designed to meet the needs and contexts of rural areas. This ecosystem, comprising sustainable and multi-interoperable apps and services, can help communities succeed in innovation and smart transformation, providing the necessary infrastructure to facilitate long-lasting social, environmental, and economic benefits by prioritizing openness, interoperability, and decentralization. On the principle that the full potential of these technologies can only be realized when they are integrated into societal and economic activity and organization, AURORAL aims to promote economic growth and digitalization in the rural domain and contribute to bridging the digital divide between rural and urban areas.
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Keywords

barriersdigital transformationinnovationinternet of thingsinteroperabilityrural areasChallengesDigital transformationInternet of thingsInteroperabilityRural areasSmart communities

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Technology In Society due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 2/267, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 6.51. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 4.52 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-12-22, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 11
  • Scopus: 33
  • Google Scholar: 28
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-12-22:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 362.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 353 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 8.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 8 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/81716/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 140
  • Downloads: 14
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Austria; Greece; Portugal; Slovakia.

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