Assessment of global law and psychiatry research in the period of 1993-2012. Review and forecast on research emphases and research trends (Part-II)

Date06 November 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2017-0081
Published date06 November 2017
Pages1162-1176
AuthorHong Lv
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Assessment of global law and
psychiatry research in the period
of 1993-2012
Review and forecast on research emphases and
research trends (Part-II)
Hong Lv
School of Public Health and Management, Hubei University of Medicine,
Shiyan, China
Abstract
Purpose The purposeof the present study is to analyze highly cited articles and globalresearch emphases
and trends of law and psychiatry (L&P)research during the period of 1993 to 2012 from the Web of Science
(WOS) database.Besides the analysis of highly cited articles to learn about the classicarticles and intellectual
base of the L&P research domain, an attemptis made to detect research emphases and trends of the study
eld.
Design/methodology/approach The present study applies quantitative analyses of citations of
scientic publications to nd highly cited articles and summarizes research hotspots and trends on L&P
research articles from WOS during 1993-2012 using statistical analysis of words in titles, KeyWords Plus,
author keywordsand co-keywords.
Findings The top 21 highly cited articles of researchon L&P were found; most of the highly cited papers
used survey research to measure patterns of violence of psychiatric patients. This present study identied
forensic psychiatry,mental health and criminal offenders were the continuing mainstreamtopics in the L&P
eld and risk assessment, risk factors and risk management of violent behavior, legislation for sexual
offences, mentalhealth courts, recidivism and expert testimony wererecent research emphases and trends of
the study eld. On the contrary, psychiatric hospitalization, psychiatrist-patient, community and services
were not mainstream topics in the study eld and were of decreasing importance and popularity in L&P
research. Additionally, the topics of violent behavior and risk assessment have developed to a signicant
subgroup of L&P research.Finally, research emphases and trends in the L&P eld were foundbased on the
co-keywordscluster map and density map.
Originality/value This is the rst study to quantify and detect research emphases and trendsin L&P
from the WOS during 1993-2012,which may provide the groundwork for future studiesof the L&P research
domain, and offer some important suggestions and implications for professional researchers, specialists,
publicationseditorsand public policy makers concernedwith the domain.
Keywords Data analysis, Research trend, Collaboration, Bibliometrics,
Information resources management, Co-word analysis, Research emphases
Paper type Research paper
This study was supported by the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and
Social Sciences (No. 16YJCZH069) and the initial project fund of Hubei University of Medicine (No.
2015QDJRW01). The author would also like to thank the chief editor and joint editor of The Electronic
Library and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
EL
35,6
1162
Received11 April 2017
Accepted11 April 2017
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 6, 2017
pp. 1162-1176
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-04-2017-0081
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT