Research status, hotspots and trends for information behavior in China using bibliometric and co-word analysis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the research status and outputs of information behavior in China in order to reveal its in-depth research pattern and trends. Design/methodology/approach The author collected literature during the past 29 years from China Academic Journal Network Publishing Database. Bibliometric analysis, including publication growth analysis, core authors and collaborative degree analysis, core journals analysis, and institutions distribution, was performed. The temporal visualization map of burst term was drawn, and the co-occurrence matrix of these keywords was analyzed by the hierarchical cluster analysis, strategic diagram, and social network analysis. Findings The earliest article on information behavior in China was published in 1987. And the number of articles has risen continually since then, which follows the logical growth law of literature. The collaborative degree of authors is on the rise in general. The distribution of these articles obeys the Bradford’s Law of Scattering. School of Information Management of Wuhan University remarkably ranks the top in most publications. In all, ten important research directions were identified, which are in the imbalanced development. And a newly appearing topic with great potential for further development, namely information seeking and information security, is identified. Originality/value This study provides important insights into the research status and trends on information behavior in China, which might provide a potential guide for the future research.