7.1 Nodes

Merge Nodes Using Aliases

If you notice that some nodes in the network are in fact the variants of the same entity, you may use aliases to merge them so that they will appear as a single node. For example, in an author co-citation network below, CHEN CM and CHEN C are both from my own publications, so they should be merged into CHEN CM.

To use the alias function, first edit the properties of the current project and in particular make sure the Alias is on by typing an on and save.

Right-click on the node CHEN CM and select it as the primary alias. Then right-click on the node CHEN C and select the secondary alias. CiteSpace will remind you that you need to re-run the process to see the changes.

In addition to merge nodes interactively through the graphical user interface, you can edit the citespace.alias file directly. The citespace.alias file needs to be located in the project folder for your target project. You can use any text editor to create and edit the file as long as the filename is citespace.alias.

The content of the file is formatted according to the following rules:

1. Each one contains a pair of node references separated by the ‘#’ character. The node references can be cited references, cited authors, or institutions.

2. The primary form of the alias, i.e. the node you want to retain, should appear first, and followed by the ‘#’ separator. The secondary alias, i.e. the node you want to merge into the primary alias node, should appear after the ‘#’ separator.

3. Include as many lines (i.e. pairs) as you need.

Save the file and go back to CiteSpace. Make sure the Enable Alias field in the Project setting is on. Next, you can start the project with GO!

The easiest way to learn about the various detailed formats you can use is to try out with a few examples through the interactive mode. Then open the CiteSpace generated citespace.alias file with a text editor to get yourself familiar with the existing example.

Exclude a Node from the Visualized Network

You may exclude a node from the network by right-clicking on the node and select “Add to the Exclusion List”. You need to re-run the GO function to re-calculate the network model.

The exclusion list is saved in the file citespace.exclusion in the project folder. You may edit it directly as a text file, for example, adding new entries directly or removing existing entries. If you want to remove the exclusion list altogether, simply rename or delete the citespace.exclusion file.