How does a research topic evolve into a research field? A bibliometric analysis of metadiscourse research

Abstract

This study adopted a bibliometric approach to trace the diachronic changes in metadiscourse research, based on the research articles and their unique references retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) core collections from 19802020. CiteSpace software was employed to conduct a co-citation analysis to investigate the common themes, the developmental stages, as well as the landmark publications of this domain over the last four decades. Twelve major themes (represented by clusters) were identified and most figure a strong focus in ESP. Studies in these clusters progressed through three developmental stages, namely the conceptualizing stage, the maturing stage, and the flourishing stage. Labeled transformative studies, three key studies were identified as playing a key role in the developmental stage. The use of structural variation analysis contributed to address the otherwise over-reliance on co-citation analysis. By identifying notable features in the development of metadiscourse research, this study provides insight into the evolution of the scientific field.