Unraveling the Complexities of Social Work Research in China: A Bibliometric Analysis for Enhanced Understanding and Practical Insights
Description
Abstract This study proposes an approach to enhancing understanding of the complex social work landscape in China through a bibliometric analysis. With an initial pool of 1,123 English-language articles sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection database, R-package Bibliometrix and CiteSpace were used in this study to conduct descriptive, performance, keyword co-occurrence and co-citation analyses, with the aim of exploring the intellectual structure of social work research in the Chinese context. We have identified the high-impact journals, most cited documents, and the most prominent research clusters within this domain. Furthermore, efforts were made to facilitate exploration and comprehension of six prominent research clusters. The analysis results were intended to furnish scholars and practitioners with a contemporary and inclusive overview of the interdisciplinary and complex nature of the social work in China.