The Status of Nursing Leadership Studies: Its Invisible Network of Knowledge

Abstract

Abstract-To explore the intellectual structure of nursing leadership research in the last decade, the most crucial publications, most influential scholars, as well as the correlations among the publications of these scholars were identified. In this study, bibliometric techniques (citation analysis and cocitation analysis) were used to investigate the intellectual pillars of nursing leadership literature. By analyzing 92 394 citations of 1317 articles regarding nursing leadership published from 2003 to 2012 obtained from the Science Citation Index and Social Sciences Citation Index databases, a knowledge network of nursing leadership studies was mapped. The mapping results can be used to help identify the direction of nursing leadership research and provide a valuable tool for researchers to access the literature in this field.