Exploring the research themes and their relationships of LIS in China from 2013 to 2018 using co-word analysis

摘要

This study aims to examine the research themes and their relationships of library and information science (LIS) in mainland China during the period of 2013-2018. Data were collected from the China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database (CAJD) and co-word analysis method was employed to measure correlation among the extracted key words. Seventeen theme-clusters, network characteristics (centre and density), clustering strategy diagram, and correlation network are revealed through cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling (MDS), and social network analysis. The results show that in recent years research on LIS in China, several important research themes like Electronic Government, Reading Promotion, and Social Media have emerged with high relevance, which can be considered as concentrated, mature and well-developed. Some research topics such as Ontology, Big data, and Cloud Computing have developed on a considerable scale, while others remain isolated and undeveloped like Knowledge Sharing and Virtual Community. In addition, the current research has also identified a few of emerging research topics with great potential for development like Mobile Library, Subject Services, and User Experience. The study is beneficial to understand the overall picture of research themes and their relationships of LIS in China in recent years to provide support for follow-up research.