Geovisualization of bibliographic data using ArcGIS

Abstract

This study examined the geographic aspects of literature involving the visualization of bibliographic data published by authors residing in the contiguous United States. ArcGIS was used to visualize networks of cited-citing publications and co-authors for 102 publications based on first author institutional affiliation. Spatial statistics and other tools within ArcGIS were used to explore the clustering of research activity and test the "death of distance" hypothesis among co-authors. Both the "producers" and "consumers" of the scholarly output were found to be clustered. Visual inspection of the thematic maps found research activity concentrated in the following cities: Bloomington, IN, Philadelphia, PA, Sandia, NM, Stillwater, OK, and Tucson, AZ. Over half of the co-authorship (60%) occurred among authors within the same ZIP code. The cited-citing publication network and co-author network maps shared a characteristic pattern indicating that many producers and consumers also co-authored with each other. While the number of co-authored publications in the field of visualization of bibliographic data increased from 1995-2009, the average co-author distance remained unchanged over that period.