Web Intelligence Journal in perspective: an analysis of its two decades trajectory

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the two-decade trajectory of the Web Intelligence Journal (WIJ) through a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed WIJ publications from 2003 to 2022. It employs co-citation and keyword co-occurrence analyses, with network visualizations from VOSviewer and Cytoscape, to map influential works, collaboration patterns, and evolving topics. The study finds 411 WIJ papers authored by 1,101 researchers, with global coverage and leading contributions from China, the US, and Australia; early papers (2003–2008) dominate citations and clusters center on ontology, trust networks, and large networks, while co-occurrence analyses reveal four topic clusters and emerging themes such as machine learning, big data, ICT, cloud computing, and blockchain. These insights offer strategic guidance for researchers, editors, and funding bodies on where WIJ-related research is headed and which avenues warrant deeper exploration. Overall, the work provides a replicable, long-range map of WIJ's trajectory and its influence on the broader Web Intelligence field.

Abstract

The evolution of a thematic area undergoes various changes of perspective and adopts new theoretical approaches that arise from the interactions of the community and a wide range of social needs. The advent of digital technologies, such as social networks, underlines this factor by spreading knowledge and forging links between different communities. Web intelligence is now on the verge of raising questions that broaden the understanding of how artificial intelligence impacts the Web of People, Data, and Things, among other factors. To the best of our knowledge, there is no study that has conducted a longitudinal analysis of the evolution of this community. Thus, we investigate in this paper how Web intelligence has evolved in the last twenty years by carrying out a literature review and bibliometric analysis. Concerning the impact of this research study, increasing attention is devoted to determining which are the most influential papers in the community by referring to citation networks and discovering the most popular and pressing topics through a co-citation analysis and the keywords co-occurrence. The results obtained can guide the direction of new research projects in the area and update the scope and places of interest found in current trends and the relevant journals.

Figures (12)

• Figure 1: Steps taken in the literature review based on kitchenham2004procedures.
• Figure 2: Publications by year (2003–2022*).
• Figure 3: Cumulative publications and authors (2003–2022*).
• Figure 4: Publications by countries (2003–2022*).
• Figure 5: Geographical distribution of institutions.