Author bibliographic coupling analysis: A test based on a Chinese academic database

The paper first introduces the basic problems of author bibliographic coupling including the relationship between author bibliographic coupling and document bibliographic coupling as well as the three calculation methods of author coupling strength, namely, simple method, minimum method and combined method. Next I choose a small sample of authors in Chinese library and information science (LIS) as the research objects to have a comparative analysis of three types of author coupling strength algorithms (the data source is from the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI)). The result shows that the minimum method is the most appropriate one to calculate the author coupling strength. Then a large sample of authors is chosen to analyze the intellectual structure of Chinese LIS. The result shows that author bibliographic coupling analysis (ABCA) can discover the intellectual structure of a discipline better. It is also found that compared with author cocitation analysis (ACA), ABCA has the advantage that it not only can discover the intellectual structure of a discipline more comprehensively and concretely but also can reflect the research frontier of the discipline. Finally, some practical problems that arise during this research are discussed.

► I discuss some basic issues of author bibliographic coupling analysis (ABCA).
► Compare the three calculation methods of ABC and I find minimum method is the most appropriate method.
► Discover the intellectual structure of Chinese LIS using this method.
► I find ABCA is better for exploring the structure, especially the front structure of a discipline compared with ACA.
► Some practical problems that arise during this study are discussed.