Analysis on the research progress of library and information science since the new century

Abstract

PurposeLibrary science and information science, two subdisciplines of library and information science (LIS), are developed independently but interconnectedly. In this information age, LIS is in a special period of transformation and development, which has caused some changes in both library science and information science. By accurately capturing these changes and analyzing them, the authors can effectively map the development of LIS in the new century, thus providing a reference for the evolution and development of the field. The purposes of this paper are to explore the mainstream research fields and frontiers of library science and information science, respectively, since the new century, and to make a comparative analysis of the two subdisciplines.Design/methodology/approachBy using CiteSpace to visualize LIS journals, this study draws knowledge maps of the two subdisciplines of LIS through the co-occurrence descriptors network. Using burst detection algorithm, this study detects words of high frequency variation by investigating the time frequency distribution.FindingsThe results show that the research focus of library science has experienced a change from traditional to digital library while information science has moved from information to data focus. This study also finds the similarities and differences between mainstream areas of library science and information science.Originality/valueThis study focuses on the evolution of library science and information science, and explores their mainstream research fields and frontiers in the 21st century. These findings will promote the transformation and development of LIS as well as provide research directions for scholars in the field.

Research Landscape of Artificial Intelligence and e-Learning: A Bibliometric Research

“…Since 2012, artificial intelligence research has been expanding ( Hinton et al, 2012 ; Krizhevsky et al, 2012 ). Due to its advantages over geography and time constraints, this technology is considered a necessary resource for big data analysis ( Song et al, 2020 ). Particularly, in the field of education, a high-frequency artificial intelligence–related knowledge association has emerged, aiming to improve the efficiency of educational communication and to provide an assessment teaching system with distinct individual differences ( Tang et al, 2021 ).…”

“…In recent years, an increasing number of researchers have been using various knowledge mapping tools to analyze the development trends and evolution processes of several disciplines. CiteSpace and VOSviewer are two major visualization tools in bibliometric research and other graphic science or scientific discipline research, both of which can import data directly from Web of Science and other bibliometric databases to generate visualizations ( Song et al, 2020 ). Comparing the differences between the two, VOSviewer is more accurate in clustering algorithms, while CiteSpace is better in presenting evolution and has the advantages of beautiful images and easier interpretation.…”

“…More importantly, VOSviewer can conduct text mining and can construct a network of important terms in literature ( Flis and van Eck, 2018 ), particularly playing an irreplaceable role in exploring literature reviews according to time sequence. Thus, it has been extensively used in bibliometric reviews in various fields over the past decades: research of scientific software by a link-based approach ( Orduna-Malea and Costas, 2021 ), visual analysis of Catholic health maintenance studies ( Ivanitskaya et al, 2021 ), the development trend of e-waste research ( Corsini et al, 2012 ), development of European political science ( Mas-Verdu et al, 2021 ), trend analysis of financial inclusion ( Gálvez-Sánchez et al, 2021 ), exploration of the decision-making process of higher education institutions using visual analysis technology ( Vílchez-Román et al, 2020 ) and trend analysis of library and information science ( Song et al, 2020 ). Based on the results of previous studies, it can be understood that most studies use the VOSviewer tool to explore relevant issues in co-citation and coupling analyzes in the literature (see Table 1 ).…”

Editorial: Special selection on bibliometrics and literature review

“…Readers may also be interested in Hsiao and Chen (2021) about the continuance intention to use a food-ordering chatbot. Notably, CiteSpace is a common tool used by Song et al (2020) for analyzing LIS research articles, Zhao et al (2021) for psychological processing of contextual cues, Liu and Li (2021) for land use and carbon emissions and Feng et al (2022) for cultural and creative design.…”

Intellectual structure of information science 2011–2020: an author co-citation analysis

“…Sohaili et al (2016) examined the intellectual structure of research on information behavior during 2006-2014 using a co-word analysis. Song et al (2020) conducted a descriptor co-occurrence analysis and a burst analysis using CiteSpace to draw knowledge maps of LIS 2000-2019. They found that the focus of library science evolved from traditional to digital libraries and that of information science from information to data science.…”