Abstract:

Based on the bibliometrics and visualization methods, this paper analyzes 4602 papers in 17 international journals included in SCI and SSCI in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) from 2008 to 2012. The hot domains, research fronts and the knowledge base are investigated respectively by means of knowledge mapping generated by visualization software. Conclusions are as flows.Firstly, investigations reveal that quantification, management, technology, network, retrieval, and medical health information have been the six research hot domains in LIS for the past five years. Secondly, investigations reveal that medicine information, citation analysis, virtual community of network, semantic information retrieval have been research fronts in LIS for the past five years. Thirdly, the knowledge base collection of LIS for the past five years includes three areas namely 13 fundamental classical literatures which have a significant impact on international LIS field, 10 literatures of high frequency cited,and 19 key literatures of high centrality.

Key words: Library and information science, Knowledge map, Hot domains, Research fronts, Knowledge base, Visualization analysis