Drawing a scientific map of the divorce research field using co-citation analysis

One of the applications of scientometrics is the drawing of scientific maps carried out with various techniques including co-citation. The purpose of this study was to draw the scientific map of divorce studies at the Web of Science (WoS).

This scientometric study was performed using co-citation analysis. The statistical population of the present study included all articles in the field of divorce research from 1985 to 2019, indexed in the (WoS) using the keyword “divorce” or “dissolution of marriage”. In this study, the data were extracted from the database and analyzed using VOSviewer via co-citation technique.

The results of this study showed that the scientific map of divorce studies formed three subject clusters including divorce, children and economic effects of divorce. Moreover, the United States has been the most productive country, and the words such as divorce, marriage, children and women have been the most frequent words in scientific productions.

Of the three main clusters formed in this scientific map, two ones dealt with the effects of divorce on children, indicating obviously the significance of careful attention to the children of divorce.