On Methodology And Applications Of Co-citation Analysis

Co-citation analysis is one of citation analysis methods, it is an important method of information researches. It is used to describe relationship of literatures through analyzing the frequency with which two documents are cited together. It has been applied extensively in many fields, including research evaluation and science management. At the same time,"Mapping Knowledge Domains"has become a hot-field of scientometrics, so co-citation analysis has been the focus of researches again. This thesis gives a systematical and comprehensive introduction of co-citaiton analysis. The major research contributions of this thesis are as follows: introducing the concept of co-citation, the beginning and development of co-citation analysis; analyzing its attributes and characteristics; summarizing the development path of co-citation analysis; describing the steps and methods of co-citation analysis, comparing with other related methods; introducing the tools used in analysis; summarizing the application of this method and explaining it through case study; pointing out the problems and the trends of co-citation analysis; working out my opinions and suggesting on co-citation researches of our country.The thesis applies the following research methods: literature survey, comparison and case analysis. Through generalizing the existing researches, especially overseas relative study, the thesis will provide references for the future practice. It is hoped to promote development of citation analysis theory and it's practice in our country.