Mapping intellectual structures and dynamics of transport geography research: a scientometric overview from 1982 to 2014

To date, less care has been taken to quantitatively visualize the intellectual evolution of transport geography research than to qualitatively review this field. Based on big-data literature from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science as well as scientometric mapping analysis, this important research topic is analyzed by techniques from informetric domains to detect its developmental landscape. After data reduction and clean-up, 4840 articles published from 1982 to 2014 are identified on which two network analyses are conducted: a bibliometric approach (i.e. co-occurrence and co-citation network) and a complex network approach utilizing C. Chen’s CiteSpaceII, O. Persson’s BibExcel and ESRI’s ArcGIS. Results illustrate the following: (1) periods including the rise (1960–1970s), to a stagnation period (1980–1990s), to a boom (since 1990); (2) that the change of research frontiers and hot issues is either social oriented or topic oriented; (3) that its development owes a good deal to cooperative subnetworks (schools) of six academic communities—Urban Planning, Marxist Geography, Mobility Turn, New Economic Geography, Port Geography, and Time Geography; and (4) that its research methods tend to be diversified and integrated, while its research perspective is inclined to be microcosmic and oriented to social hot issues. Finally, 23 documents are identified as playing the pivotal role in its knowledge evolution as an intellectual base.