A bibliometric analysis of literature on bibliometrics in recent half-century

Bibliometrics research has been developed for many years and achieved a great many scientific achievements. The aim of this study is to understand the current research status and development directions of research on bibliometrics. This study implements bibliometric methods based on the Web of Science to analyse the publications, subjects, citation, co-citation, collaboration and keywords of bibliometrics from 1969 to 2022. Bibliometrics is now in the development phase from its cumulative publication curve and citation analysis. Information Science & Library Science and Computer Science are the two major subjects on bibliometric research. Garfield E has the most citations and co-citation frequency in the field of bibliometrics. The number of countries cooperating with the United States is the largest and China is the most productive country; Beijing, London and Madrid are the three sub-network centres of the city cooperation network; Zhang L owns the largest number of author collaborations. Research content on bibliometrics focuses mainly on bibliometrics theory, methods, research evaluation, techniques, tools and applications. The results in this study are beneficial to researchers and readers who are interested in the field of bibliometrics and other related fields to understand the overall picture of bibliometrics, which is conducive to the future development of bibliometrics.