Bibliometric Analysis of Literature on Intangible Cultural Heritage

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a set of values that have been shaped by centuries of experience and transmitted from generation to generation. There is a deep connection between cultural values and the environment in which they live, and historical and cultural heritage plays an important role in shaping these values. In this respect, the protection of societies' national identities, cultural memories, values, unique structures and, naturally, ICH elements, which are of great importance for the continuity of cultural rich-ness, is an international responsibility and necessity. Due to its importance and scope, ICH has attracted much attention from the academy and has begun to be addressed by various disciplines. It is important to determine the perspectives from which ICH is discussed, what issues come to the fore, what problems are encountered regarding the safeguarding and transmission of ICH, and what measures can be taken to get to this point. In this context, this study aims to reveal the current state of the subject and to identify trends and future research directions by conducting a bibliometric analysis of academic studies on ICH. For this pur-pose, 4,568 studies on ICH in the Web of Science (WoS) database as of August 28, 2023 were examined for bibliometric analysis. Studies on ICH in the WoS database were evaluated according to various parame-ters (date, language and type, category, most published and most cited author, collaboration between au-thors, most published institutions and countries, location and index information, keywords and the relation-ship with sustainable development goals). The obtained data were tabulated and visualized using the VOSviewer program in the analysis section. According to the results of the research, it was determined that the studies in the field of ICH were published after 2002 due to the adoption of the Convention, and the field of study was mostly "Humanities, Multidisciplinary". The most publications on the subject were published in China with 1,101 studies, the most publications were published in the Sustainability journal with 156 studies. The relevant studies were carried out in various fields such as art, law, history, archaeology, tourism, gas-tronomy, religion, communication, especially "Sustainable Cities and Communities” (1,055) has been shown to have objectives that can meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.