Tracking Scientometric Research in Taiwan Using Bibliometric and Content Analysis

Abstract

This study used bibliometric analysis and content analysis to explore characteristics and trends of scientometric research authored by researchers in Taiwan based on journal articles and theses. The findings indicated that after the first article on scientometrics was published in 1987, an increasing trend was observed in the number of scientometric-related publications after 2000, indicating that scientometric research received more attention in recent years. The scope of disciplines of researchers was broad, and the number of disciplines continued to increase. This confirms the interdisciplinary nature of scientometric research with relationships that cross over different areas. From the perspective of the authors' disciplines, the largest percentage of the authors were from the fields of library and information science (LIS), followed by business and management, and medical science, but a considerable drop in number was observed in the percentage of LIS. In addition, co-authored articles were dominant. Over half of these articles were classified as inter-institutional collaboration and exhibited a steadily increasing trend. The number of interdisciplinary articles also exhibited an upward trend. Most of the research topics focused on citation analysis and characteristic of literature. The same trends were also found in the top two research methods: general bibliometric analysis and citation analysis. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of scientometric research, the academic backgrounds of the researchers would naturally be diverse. Given this characteristic, this study suggests that the relationship between disciplines of researchers and research topics can be further explored.