A comparative study of information visualization from the perspective of intellectual base: Using WoS and CSSCI

Purpose: Focusing on a comparative analysis of information visualization in library and information science(LIS) from the perspective of research subject and intellectual base, this paper aims to discover the difference and coherence between Chinese domestic studies on information visualization and those of other areas of the world so as to show their theoretical foundation and development trend in a more objective way.Design/methodology/approach: By using the social network analysis tool Ucinet, we have first constructed networks of key author collaboration for 651 articles retrieved from the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index(CSSCI) and 910 from the Web of Science(WoS),which were published on information visualization between 1998 and 2012 in library and information science, then we compared the intellectual base by mapping analysis from perspective of half-life, centrality and burst detection with CiteSpace II.Findings: Up to date, 51 countries and regions have contributed to the research of information visualization, and in total, we found 9 research clusters of author co-occurrence matrices,among which three are in China. Within Chinese co-author networks, most Chinese scholars have come from the same research institutions, that is to say, more international cooperation and exchange are still required for the research of information visualization across different disciplines and regions.Research limitations: This co-author network and co-citation analysis is mainly based on the research field of LIS with a focus of the WoS and CSSCI databases only, further samples are required for more generalized results to increase our understanding on the development trend of information visualization.Practical implications: This study could lead to a better understanding of the applications of information visualization technologies in discovering the development trend of a research field. Originality/value: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comparative analysis of research subject and intellectual base on information visualization, specifically, from the perspective of contributions of Chinese scholars in this regard. By dividing most frequently cited Chinese literature into two categories(original and non-original research papers), this paper shows the extent of contributions that Chinese domestic scholars have made to the research of information visualization, by revealing the contributions of different types of Chinese domestic papers on information visualization.