An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: A practical application to the Fuzzy Sets Theory field

M.J. Cobo, A.G. López-Herrera, E. Herrera-Viedma and F. Herrera

Journal of Informetrics, 2011, vol. 5, issue 1, 146-166

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to analyze the thematic evolution of a given research field. This approach combines performance analysis and science mapping for detecting and visualizing conceptual subdomains (particular themes or general thematic areas). It allows us to quantify and visualize the thematic evolution of a given research field. To do this, co-word analysis is used in a longitudinal framework in order to detect the different themes treated by the research field across the given time period. The performance analysis uses different bibliometric measures, including the h-index, with the purpose of measuring the impact of both the detected themes and thematic areas. The presented approach includes a visualization method for showing the thematic evolution of the studied field.

Keywords: Science mapping; Co-word analysis; Bibliometric studies; Fuzzy Sets Theory; Thematic evolution; h-Index (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (306)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751157710000891
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:5:y:2011:i:1:p:146-166

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2010.10.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Informetrics is currently edited by Leo Egghe

More articles in Journal of Informetrics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().