Bibliometric Analysis of Trends in the Study of Social Media

Abstract

Social media has become not only an integral part of the life of most people, but also has a significant impact on the development of all spheres of society, which determines a steady increase in the number of academic publications on this issue. The analysis of the structure and dynamics of social media research has been carried out in May 2018 on the basis of the Web of Science database using the analytical resources of this platform, as well as the CitNetExplorer and VOSviewer tools. The research technique, including assessment of social media from the point of view of their essence and structure is proved and is described step by step. The temporal dynamics of scientific results, the spatial and institutional distribution of publications from 2009 to 2017, and the thematic focus of research based on bibliometric analysis are estimated. The most productive and rating journals that publish studies of social media in the sphere of communications, the most influential universities are analyzed. The most cited (resonant) articles are presented. Bibliometric analysis with application of the VOSviewer program has revealed four clusters of researches on the basis of thematic proximity of terms. Visualization made it possible to trace the change in the thematic focus of scientific research over time. Clustering was continued by means of the CitNetExplorer. Six clusters are described on the basis of one hundred most cited articles. Comparative characteristics of each cluster are given in terms of the research topics, the "influence" of the cluster (the number of articles in the cluster and the number of most cited articles). Research opportunities of combined use of software for achievement of necessary depth of the analysis of publications are shown.