Investigating Research Trend of Rock Climbing in China Using Semantic Network Analysis

Abstract

PURPOSE The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) studying the core authors and institutions of rock climbing to understand the connections between them, (2) investigate the keyword changes, research hotspots, and development trends of rock climbing in different periods, and (3) discovering the subgroup areas of rock climbing and study their knowledge structure. METHOD The bibliometrics visualization software CiteSpace was used in this study. Semantic network analysis was performed on 376 valid papers published in CNKI during 1996-2021. The word frequency, mediating centrality, co-occurrence map, and clustering for the keywords were separately investigated. RESULT In terms of author collaboration, there are mainly four academic cooperation circles between Ma Chuhong, Guo Wei, Zhang Bo, and Li Yuanyuan. In terms of institutional cooperation networks, little cooperation occurs between rock climbing research institutions in China. Since 2009, rock climbing sport, rock climbing, current situation, feasibility, university, extreme sports, enthusiasts, artificial rock climbing, and other keywords have the highest frequency. Into rock climbing sport, rock climbing, and colleges and universities, keywords such as outdoor sports, college students, training, development, and sports tourism have become the focus of research since 2010. The rock-climbing knowledge structure consists of six sub-areas, which are G1 rock climbing, G2 college, G3 strategy, G4 climbing, G5 sports tourism, and G6 school training. CONCLUSION First, the field of rock-climbing keyword research has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. College student training and sports tourism in rock climbing are the current and future research hotspots and trends. Second, a few keywords have made significant contributions to rock climbing. Keyword semantic network analysis provides a new idea and research method for exploring the development of rock climbing.