Abstract:

Based on the 2,251 SSCI publications of Mainland China during 19982016, this paper retrospectively analyzed the internationalization of China’s Library Information Science(LIS) at first. Secondly, with works cited, it explored the discipline development where the knowledge that supported the internationalization of China’s LIS were from. Lastly, it predicted  the future of LIS in light of country/territories and disciplines of the cited documents. Findings include, (1) the number of SSCI publications in China’s LIS increased exponentially, and the impact grew with time; (2) China preferred to collaborate with USA, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore, Australia, etc.; (3) the hotspots of China’s LIS involved Information System and Informetrics; (4) the knowledge origin of China’s LIS heavily relied on selfcitations within LIS, then, Management, Information System, and etc.; (5) China’s LIS knowledge mainly diffused into LIS, accounting for as high as 59%, then, Interdisciplinary Sciences and Management from the perspective of disciplines; and into China, USA, and etc. At last, this paper proposed potential trend of China’s LIS. One is its deepening scientific nature, which means China’s LIS scholars should attach importance to descriptive inference and causal inference in their research. The other is that China’s LIS should seek growth point from interdisciplinary research.

Keywords: Library and information science, China, Internationalization, Bibliometrics, Interdisciplinary, Scientification