Application of word co-occurrence method in setting research priorities of Informetrics

<p dir="ltr">The emergence of the field of information science in the structure and strategic program of research centers aims to enhance the utilization of research potentials and also to manage and plan in the field of information science. Identifying relevant areas and research topics that are applicable and active in this field, as well as the relationships among these areas through the mapping of their subjects, seems necessary. Based on the method of co-occurrence analysis of keywords, scientific topics can be extracted, and their relationships can be directly discovered from the content of the subject matter. With this perspective, this research seeks to address the issue of which subfields constitute the knowledge of information science and how these subfields are interconnected. It aims to evaluate the application of this method and its effectiveness in identifying and determining the research priorities of the information science group.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">In the first phase of this research, to enumerate the main concepts of the field of information science and its various subject aspects, after extracting all scientific articles by researchers in the field of information science at the international level (indexed in the "Web of Science" database from 1991 to 2012, totaling 7,375 records), necessary refinements were made on the keywords of these articles, standardizing them, and ultimately preparing a selected list of terms. After consulting and soliciting opinions from experts in this field, the relevant subject areas for each of the selected terms were identified. Using the results obtained from the analysis of the data, the growth trends of publications in the field of information science and each of its subfields were identified. Additionally, the most frequently used or the most active research areas in the field of information science were categorized into two groups: specialized terms and general terms.</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">In subsequent phases, the implementation of this plan involved mapping subjects with the help of Vosviewer and NodeXL software to analyze and process the information obtained from the maps, structures, and clusters formed, as well as the internal relationships among them, leading to the creation of more refined maps. Based on the maps resulting from the analysis of the studied documents, concepts such as information science, library science, bibliometrics, innovation, and text mining emerged as some of the most frequently used topics in the field of information science at the international level. The mapping of co-occurrence over different time periods revealed changes and consistencies in the concepts and terms related to the field of information science. Some terms, such as "bibliometric analysis," were present in all the years studied, while others disappeared over time. New concepts emerged as a reconfiguration of existing terms, interacting with new developments and technologies. Finally, a comprehensive model of the process for implementing this plan, which can also be applicable to other subject areas, has been presented.</p>