Software tools for conducting bibliometric analysis in science: An up-to-date review

Abstract

Bibliometrics has become an essential tool for assessing and analyzing the output of scientists, cooperation between
\nuniversities, the effect of state-owned science funding on national research and development performance and educational
\nefficiency, among other applications. Therefore, professionals and scientists need a range of theoretical and practical
\ntools to measure experimental data. This review aims to provide an up-to-date review of the various tools available
\nfor conducting bibliometric and scientometric analyses, including the sources of data acquisition, performance analysis
\nand visualization tools. The included tools were divided into three categories: general bibliometric and performance
\nanalysis, science mapping analysis, and libraries; a description of all of them is provided. A comparative analysis of the
\ndatabase sources support, pre-processing capabilities, analysis and visualization options were also provided in order to
\nfacilitate its understanding. Although there are numerous bibliometric databases to obtain data for bibliometric and
\nscientometric analysis, they have been developed for a different purpose. The number of exportable records is between
\n500 and 50,000 and the coverage of the different science fields is unequal in each database. Concerning the analyzed
\ntools, Bibliometrix contains the more extensive set of techniques and suitable for practitioners through Biblioshiny.
\nVOSviewer has a fantastic visualization and is capable of loading and exporting information from many sources. SciMAT
\nis the tool with a powerful pre-processing and export capability. In views of the variability of features, the users need to
\ndecide the desired analysis output and chose the option that better fits into their aims.

Keywords

Affiliated Institutions

• Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar ES
• Universidad de Cádiz ES
• Universidad de Granada ES

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