{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,20]],"date-time":"2026-04-20T13:01:36Z","timestamp":1776690096436,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,18]],"date-time":"2019-12-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1576627200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["LHT"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,12,18]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this paper is to use bibliometric analysis to identify the current state of the academic literature regarding social network analysis (SNA) and analyze its knowledge base such as research authors, research countries, document type, keyword analysis and subject areas.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>Bibliometric analysis is used and furthermore, Lotka\u2019s and Bradford\u2019s law is applied to perform author productivity analyses in this field during 1999 and 2018, respectively, in turn, discovering historical vein and research tendency in the future.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>It appears that the research on SNA has been very popular and still in the highly mature period. So far, the USA takes the lead among the published paper. The top 2 subject areas are \u201cComputer Science\u201d and \u201cBusiness Economics.\u201d The primary journal that SNA articles were published is<jats:italic>Computers in Human Behavior<\/jats:italic>. SNA has been related to many research areas, such as \u201cSocial network analysis,\u201d \u201cComputer-mediated communication,\u201d \u201cOnline learning,\u201d \u201cSocial Network\u201d and \u201cCommunity of inquiry.\u201d Finally, Kolmogorov\u2013Smirnov (K-S) test proved that the frequency indexes of author productivity distribution certainly followed Lotka\u2019s law.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>First, the productivity distribution may inform researchers and scholars of current issues and development of SNA. Second, the study proposed a theoretical model, based on Lotka\u2019s law, for author productivity analysis of SNA, which can serve as reference for different areas of study in the evaluation of author productivity models. Also, in order to allow researchers to gain in-depth insights, this study aimed to report the most published institutions and keep track of the growth and trend of author productivity, by which scholars in related fields are provided with more opportunities for academic communication and technological cooperation.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>This research on the productivity distribution of SNA may inform researchers and scholars of current issues and development of SNA. The findings report the major publication outlets and related discussion issues about SNA. Such information would be valuable for related authors, who are writing the manuscript on SNA, and also for practitioners, who may be interested in applying the theory or ideas of SNA.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/lht-01-2019-0028","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,3]],"date-time":"2020-01-03T07:42:08Z","timestamp":1578037328000},"page":"420-433","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":78,"title":["Bibliometric study of social network analysis literature"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"38","author":[{"given":"Yu-Sheng","family":"Su","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Chien-Linag","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Shih-Yeh","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Chin-Feng","family":"Lai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"issue":"1","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref300","first-page":"35","article-title":"Nutrition literature of Bangladesh: a bibliometric study","volume":"13","year":"2008","journal-title":"Malaysian Journal of Library & Information Science"},{"key":"key2020061114432678800_ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"138","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chb.2016.02.064","article-title":"Comparative analysis of relevance feedback methods based on two user studies","volume":"60","year":"2016","journal-title":"Computer in Human Behavior"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"74","DOI":"10.1002\/1532-2890(2000)52:1<74::AID-ASI1052>3.0.CO;2-C","article-title":"Implications of ambiguity for scientometric measurement","volume":"52","year":"2001","journal-title":"Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology"},{"key":"key2020061114432678800_ref003","first-page":"85","article-title":"Sources of information on specific subjects","volume":"23","year":"1934","journal-title":"Engineering"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref301","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"515","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-016-2094-z","article-title":"Global neuroscience and mental health research: a bibliometrics case study","volume":"109","year":"2016","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"key":"key2020061114432678800_ref004","first-page":"1634","article-title":"The literature review of technology acceptance model: a study of the bibliometric distributions","year":"2010"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"268","DOI":"10.1016\/j.technovation.2006.09.003","article-title":"Determining technology trends and forecasts of RFID by a historical review and bibliometric analysis from 1991 to 2005","volume":"27","year":"2007","journal-title":"Technovation"},{"issue":"22","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2827","DOI":"10.1080\/00036846.2011.566208","article-title":"A bibliometric study of financial risk literature: a historic approach","volume":"44","year":"2012","journal-title":"Applied Economics"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1007\/s11192-010-0331-4","article-title":"Exploring the management information systems discipline: a scientometric study of ICIS, PACIS and ASAC","volume":"87","year":"2011","journal-title":"Scientometrics"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2020061114432678800_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"155","DOI":"10.1353\/pla.2002.0009","article-title":"Where to spend our e-journal money? 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