A Visualization Analysis of Occupant Behavior Research Based on CiteSpace

Occupant behavior introduces significant uncertainty into building energy performance. The diversity of its drivers and the dynamic interactions with building systems have attracted extensive attention. To comprehensively understand the current research status in the field of occupant behavior, this paper uses the Web of Science database as a data source and applies bibliometric methods to visualize and analyze 1,054 occupant behavior-related studies published from 2001 to 2024. The results found that (1) the number of related publications is generally increasing. There are core research institutions and authors in this field, and the level of cooperation is high; (2) cluster analysis of the main keywords reveals that research focuses on the drivers of occupant behavior, research methods, building types, and impacts; and (3) based on the analysis of the keyword citation bursts, the keywords “machine learning,” “virtual reality,” and “smart building” are identified as three future research directions. This study can provide references and insights for future theoretical research and practical innovations in the field of occupant behavior, in pursuit of the goal of energy conservation and emissions reduction in the building sector.