6.3 Define Networks

CiteSpace can generate several types of networks. The default node type is Cited References. In this case, the links are co-citation links. The networks are made of co-cited references.

CiteSpace allows you to choose a single node type or multiple concurrent node types. For example, you may select Author, Cited References, and Category to form networks of three types of nodes and 6 types of links, i.e. Author-Author (collaborative), Reference-Reference (co-citation), Category-Category (co-occurrence), Author-Reference (author-cites-reference), Author-Category (author-publishes-in-category), and Category-Reference (paper-in-category-cites-Reference).

Document co-citation networks are built on the methods pioneered by Henry Small (Small, 1973), but extended from a single-slide equivalent to multiple-slice network analysis, i.e. a time series of networks in order to detect critical transitions over time more effectively.

Author co-citation networks are originated from (White & Griffith, 1981).

Much of the attention in the design of CiteSpace has been devoted to document co-citation analysis due to the preferences that citation patterns of references provide particularly revealing insights into the structure and dynamics of scientific paradigms.