CitNetExplorer: A new software tool for analyzing and visualizing citation networks

•CitNetExplorer is a new software tool for analyzing and visualizing citation networks.•The main concepts related to CitNetExplorer are introduced.•Two applications of CitNetExplorer are demonstrated.•Technical details on the construction, visualization, and analysis of citation networks are discussed.

We present CitNetExplorer, a new software tool for analyzing and visualizing citation networks of scientific publications. CitNetExplorer can for instance be used to study the development of a research field, to delineate the literature on a research topic, and to support literature reviewing. We first introduce the main concepts that need to be understood when working with CitNetExplorer. We then demonstrate CitNetExplorer by using the tool to analyze the scientometric literature and the literature on community detection in networks. Finally, we discuss some technical details on the construction, visualization, and analysis of citation networks in CitNetExplorer.

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