Characteristics of Fuzzy Researches: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on Essential Science Indicators

For having a comprehensive understanding of the researches in fuzzy area, a bibliometric analysis on essential science indicators (ESI) publications was made during the period of 2006 to 2016. There were 825 ESI publications pertinent to fuzzy research in this period. Various ESI publication characteristics were investigated systematically, such as productive and influential authors, journals, countries and inter- institutionally collaborations. Statistics from different perspectives are presented to highlight key contributors that have made important contributions for the development of fuzzy research. Cooperative network visualizations are presented based on co-occurrence and co-citation techniques to show the partnerships among authors and institutions. This study reveals underlying patterns of fuzzy ESI publications and is very useful for exploring its structure and citation landscape. In general, the research of this paper presents a new research framework to explore the performance of some research fields.