Social network analysis of mythology field

Abstract

PurposeThe main purpose of the study is to detect, monitor the mythology field and make predictions of the development of it using social network analysis metrics. Mythology, which is the subject of many disciplines, is an area with extensive working potential. In addition to basic bibliometric indicators, the relationships of this field, which cannot be seen by other methods, were analyzed using measures such as centrality, between, eigenvector, modularity and silhouette coefficients.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, social network analysis of the field of mythology, which has an interdisciplinary structure, was made. Within the scope of the study, 28,370 publications were selected from the publications in the field of mythology in the Web of Science (WoS) citation database between 1900 and 2019 using the probability-based stratified sampling method (5%), and detailed analyzes were made on these publications. The aforementioned publications were analyzed in terms of publication and citation numbers, publication types, subject categories, keywords used, co-authorship, researchers with the highest number of publications, institutions and countries with the highest number of document co-citations.FindingsThe findings show that the field of mythology gathers around four main subjects (sociology, folklore, politics and anthropology). When interpreted in terms of centrality metrics in more detail, the symbiotic or complementary relationship between anthropology, folklore, politics, sociology and mythology can be easily observed.Originality/valueThe findings of this study are seen important for scientists, decision-makers and policymakers. In addition, the findings of the study can be used to create the curriculum of the field.