The Knowledge Diffusion And Evolution Pattern Of China's Library And Information Science

Citations indicate knowledge diffusion,from the perspective of bibliometrics.Based on academic citation databases,the traditional bibliometric methods reveal the flow of knowledge among disciplines,institutions,and journals,and the network analysis method unfolds the network structure of library and information science at different time from macroscopic and microscopic aspects.By retrieving the Web of Science database for the 1998-2016 papers on Library and Information Science in Mainland China,we used traditional bibliometric methods to study the knowledge diffusion in library and information science in China from journals,disciplines,and institutions,and applied network analysis methods to construct "Journal-Subjects" Knowledge Diffusion Path Network of China's Library and Information Science.Research findings include:(1)China's LIS increased its international publications and citations significantly during 1998-2016,however,its contribution to the whole world is still small,in terms of the number of articles,i.e.,only 3%.(2)China's LIS presented more and more extensive knowledge source,although LIS is still the major knowledge contribution discipline.In addition,Management and Computer Science are the major interdisciplinary knowledge donators.(3)Interdisciplinarity appeared in China' s LIS knowledge diffusion,and the trend is more and more obvious,which could stimulate the development of China's LIS.(4)The dimension,strength and speed of China' s LIS knowledge diffusion has been increasing substantially during the period 1998-2016.However,we have to admit the fact that China's LIS knowledge diffusion has been mainly limited to Asian countries/territories,rather than the European or American countries.At the end of this research,we discussed the potential trends of China's LIS and the limitations of this study.One trend is the scientification of China's LIS,which is required for the internationalization of China's LIS.The other is interdisciplinarity of China's LIS,which potentially drives the development of China's LIS.