Co-citation, bibliographic coupling and leading authors, institutions and countries in the 50 years of Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Abstract

Technological Forecasting and Social Change (TF&SC) is a leading international journal that publishes major advances related to technological forecasting and future studies. The journal was launched in 1969 and in 2019 celebrated its 50th anniversary. To celebrate 50 years of outstanding contributions, this study presents a bibliometric analysis of TF&SC publications and patterns of citations within TF&SC in terms of authors, institutions and countries. The analysis relies on the Web of Science Core Collection database for bibliographic content and Visualization of Similarities viewer software for mapping of bibliometric data. Our analysis identifies leading authors, universities and countries that produce publications in TF&SC. This study also applies bibliometric analysis of co-citations and bibliographic coupling. Results suggest that authors and publications originating in the USA and the Netherlands are particularly influential. However, the journal is becoming more geographically diverse. Mapping of co-citations and bibliographic coupling suggests that work published in TF&SC is represented by several heterogeneous clusters.