Mapping knowledge structure by keyword co-occurrence and social network analysis: Evidence from Library Hi Tech between 2006 and 2017

The purpose of this paper is to present the knowledge structure based on the articles published in Library Hi Tech. The research hotspots are expected to be revealed through the keyword co-occurrence and social network analysis.

Data sets based on publications from Library Hi Tech covering the time period from 2006 to 2017 were extracted from Web of Science and developed as testbeds for evaluation of the CiteSpace system. Highly cited keywords were analyzed by CiteSpace which supports visual exploration with knowledge discovery in bibliographic databases.

The findings suggested that the percentage of publications in the USA, Germany, China, and Canada are high. Further, the most popular keywords identified in Library Hi Tech were: “service,” “technology,” “digital library,” “university library,” and “academic library.” Finally, four research issues were identified based on the most-cited articles in Library Hi Tech.

While keyword plays an important role in scientific research, limited studies paid attention to the keyword analysis in librarian research. The contribution of this study is to systematically explore the knowledge structure constructed by the keywords in Library Hi Tech.