Bibliometrics of Big Data Research Literature in Social Science

Purpose/Significance] This article provides a bibliometric study of the big data research literature in social science to explore its features and patterns both in domestic and international area, quantitatively and qualitatively. Method/Process] This article collects the data from academic databases, then makes statistical analysis on significant characteristics to evaluate the regularity of document increase, distribution of subject categories, most prolific and impactful institutions, and then discusses the relations between research front and intellectual base via citation and co-citation analysis, finally concludes research features and patterns of big data. Result/Conclusion] (1) Different subject categories show the different level of research interest while big data research has been one of the most popular topics in social science. The most documents are from information science and library science. (2) Besides journals of high output subject categories, computer science, telecommunications and multidisciplinary journals are common intellectual bases of big data research in social science. (3) Renmin University of China in domestic and Harvard University in the world are top institutions according to the number of fruits and influence of their publications of big data research in social science. (4) For China, publication quantity in social science makes apparent growth while international academic influence is still limited.