Social Sciences in China Review

No.3, 2018

A Big Data Research on Citation in Philosophy and Social Science Books Published in China（Abstract）

Xiao Hong, Wu Junhong, Guo Wentao, Yu Jin and Sun Jun

Taking the 3.45 million copies of philosophy and social science books published in Chinese mainland from October 1949 to May 2017 recorded in China Archives Publication as our assessment objects, and journal articles, dissertations, conference papers found in CNKI.NET as our statistical sources, using methods of bibliometric and comparative analysis, we made a quantitative analysis of the publication status of China’s philosophy and social sciences books and their citation in academic literature. It for the first time reveals a general picture of development trends, discipline statuses, publishers, hot topics and highly cited books, etc., in this field in China. In recent years, philosophy and social science book publishing has developed rapidly in China. The top 5 categories with the most publications are education, literature, economics, art and linguistics. Economic, legal, literary, political and educational books are the top 5 in citations. Marxism, law, philosophy, statistics, journalism and communication are the top 5 in average citation frequency per book. Degree thesis and dissertations are the largest sources of citations, and the most frequently cited subjects are economics, law and political science. The statistics of highly cited topics, books and publishers on the basis of big data provide a reference for decision making.