The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the field of visualisations in computer graphics (VCG), using a bibliometric performance analysis and science mapping.
The search query ((TITLE-ABS (visual*) or TITLE-ABS (vizual*)) and TITLE-ABS (graphic*) was performed in the Scopus database. The search was limited to the time period from 1984 to 2020 and to scientific articles and conference papers as document types. 37.632 documents were retrieved and used as the base dataset for further analyses.
Performance analyses were conducted to assess the number and time trends of publications; the position of VCG in Scopus research areas, the most prolific authors, sources, and countries; and the documents with the highest impact. The intellectual, social and conceptual structure of the VCG field was examined using the science mapping method based on bibliographic networks.
Microsoft Excel and the SciMAT tool were used for basic statistical analyses. SciMAT was also used for preprocessing to create thesaurus files. MapInSeconds (mapinseconds.com) was used to display the global geographic distribution of documents. The bibliometric analyses and visualisation of the results were performed with the VOSviewer software, which was used to create, visualise and explore the bibliographic maps of (a) the co-occurrence of keywords / terms from the titles and abstracts of documents to show the conceptual structure of the VCG field, (b) direct citations, co-citations and bibliographic coupling relations among documents, authors, sources and cited references to show the intellectual structure of the field, and (c) the co-authorship relations among authors, countries and institutions to show the social structure of the VCG field.
The conceptual structure of the VCG field, its evolution over time and research trends were examined through a co-word analysis of keywords and concepts from the titles and abstracts of the documents. A citation analysis was used to identify the most influential research areas, authors and sources in the VCG field, a co-citation analysis was applied to identify the foundational documents or »intellectual base« of the field, and bibliographic coupling was used to identify research trends in the VCG field. A co-authorship analysis was used to identify patterns of collaboration among researchers, countries and institutions in the VCG field.
The results of the analyses and their interpretation confirmed all 5 research hypotheses and answered the research questions. The study provided new insights into existing scientific research in the field of VCG, representing an original scientific contribution to the field of graphic arts through the application of bibliometric methods. In practical terms, the results of the study provide insights for VCG researchers to identify research trends, position their research within the existing research areas, generate new ideas for original research, identify patterns of collaboration among researchers, institutions and countries, and find opportunities for networking, as well as identify relevant literature sources for studying and publishing research findings.
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