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Mapping the evolution of library and information science (1978–2014) using topic modeling on LISA

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Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the bibliometric study of the domain of library and information science (LIS), with the aim of giving a multidisciplinary perspective of the topical boundaries and the main areas and research tendencies. Based on a retrospective and selective search, we have obtained the bibliographical references (title and abstract) of academic production on LIS in the database LISA in the period 1978–2014, which runs to 92,705 documents. In the context of the statistical technique of topic modeling, we apply latent Dirichlet allocation, in order to identify the main topics and categories in the corpus of documents analyzed. The quantitative results reveal the existence of 19 important topics, which can be grouped together into four main areas: processes, information technology, library and specific areas of information application.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Salamanca, c/Espejo s/n, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Carlos G. Figuerola

  2. University of Zaragoza, c/Pedro Zerbuna, 12, 50009, Zaragoza, Spain

    Francisco Javier García Marco

  3. University of Granada, Campus de Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    María Pinto

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  1. Carlos G. Figuerola
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  2. Francisco Javier García Marco
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  3. María Pinto
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Correspondence to Carlos G. Figuerola.

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Figuerola, C.G., García Marco, F.J. & Pinto, M. Mapping the evolution of library and information science (1978–2014) using topic modeling on LISA. Scientometrics 112, 1507–1535 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2432-9

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