Exploring Topics in Bibliometric Research Through Citation Networks and Semantic Analysis

Abstract

This article surveys topic distributions of the academic literature that employs the terms bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics. This exploration allows informing on the adoption of those terms and publication patterns of the authors acknowledging their work to be part of bibliometric research. We retrieved 20,268 articles related to bibliometrics and applied methodologies that exploit various features of the dataset to surface different topic representations. Across them, we observe major trends including discussions on theory, regional publication patterns, databases, and tools. There is a great increase in the application of bibliometrics as science mapping and decision-making tools in management, public health, sustainability, and medical fields. It is also observed that the term bibliometrics has reached an overall generality, while the terms scientometrics and informetrics may be more accurate in representing the core of bibliometric research as understood by the information and library science field. This article contributes by providing multiple snapshots of a field that has grown too quickly beyond the confines of library science.

Keywords: bibliometrics; informetrics; public health; scientometrics; strategic management; sustainability; topic extraction.

FIGURE 1

Research framework.

FIGURE 2

Number of articles published per year.

FIGURE 3

Number of articles containing the keywords “bibliometrics”, “scientometrics” or “informetrics” in their title, abstract, or indexed keywords.

FIGURE 4

Citation network of bibliometric research showing the relative position of the 13 clusters identified.

FIGURE 5

Yearly publications per cluster from 2001 to 2020.

FIGURE 6

Topical cluster proportion for different windows of time until 2020.

FIGURE 7

Hierarchical topic tree of bibliometric research.

FIGURE 8

Scientific evolution pathways of bibliometric research between 1969 and 2020.