Abstract:

The core research subjects of Information systems (IS) and Information Science(ISCi) are human, information technology and their interaction. The conjunction of research topics of the two disciplines contributes to inter-discipline scholarship collaboration, and accelerate knowledge accumulation about information-related theories. This paper aims to investigate how the overlap of research topics of IS and ISci varies over time in 21th century abroad. Bibliometric data of JASIST, JoD, MISQ, ISR, JMIS, JAIS from Web of Science are collected, and knowledge map methodology and content analysis are combined to address the research question. First, we use NEViewer to construct a 3-year sliced co-word network to show the dynamic process of communities of research topics evolution. Second, we use Node Coincidence Algorithm to quantify the similarity of the two discipline, as a proxy of inter-discipline collaboration potential. The empirical results show that, the research topics of IS and ISci in 21 Century abroad have less overlap than that in 20 Century. But there exist some new conjunct subjects in the two disjuct disciplines, suggesting that IS and ISci have scholarship collaboration potential.

Key words: Information systems, Information science, Knowledge map, Research topics, Community evolution detection