Abstract:

Research of discipline structure and evolution always drew the scholars’ interests. From different views, mapping knowledge domains, discipline knowledge network, discipline knowledge map, et.al. revealed the discipline structure and evolution. Although lots of achievements have gained, there were also some critical issues on their ambiguous concepts and duplicate contents. In terms of the critical issues above, this paper applied traditional literature study method to review the literature of mapping knowledge domains, discipline knowledge network, discipline knowledge map, et al. home and abroad and summarized their similarities, differences, problems and trends. It concluded that discipline knowledge map was the guide to knowledge, emphasizing on knowledge organization, mapping knowledge domains and discipline knowledge network not only focused on knowledge organization, but also knowledge discovery. As to visualization, it conformed the concepts of discipline knowledge map, mapping knowledge domains and discipline knowledge network, which were visualized in the form of map, network and so on.

Key words: Discipline structure, Discipline evolution, Visualization, Mapping knowledge domains, Discipline knowledge network, Discipline knowledge map