Visualizing the intellectual structure and evolution of innovation systems research: a bibliometric analysis

Despite increasing awareness of the need to trace the trajectory of innovation system research, so far little attention has been given to quantitative depiction of the evolution of this fast-moving research field. This paper uses CiteSpace to demonstrate visually intellectual structures and developments. The study uses citation analysis to detect and visualize disciplinary distributions, keyword co-word networks and journal cocitation networks, highly cited references, as well as highly cited authors to identify intellectual turning points, pivotal points and emerging trends, in innovation systems system research from 1975 to 2012.