Co-citation Network
Updated 2026-08-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
A bibliometric method introduced by Henry Small, in which two documents are linked when a third document cites both. The core proposition is that co-citation reflects the citing author's judgment about relatedness, so aggregating many such judgments produces a map of the field's intellectual structure. The key qualification is that co-citation measures perceived association rather than content equivalence or causal influence.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Matrix building: count how often each pair of works is cited together. - Cluster reading: group strongly co-cited works to identify research communities. - Frontier scan: watch which new clusters are forming to spot emerging topics.
Anchor fast decisions
Each citing author selects references that belong together in their argument, which registers an association between those works. Because a single judgment is noisy, aggregation across many citing papers produces a stable signal about which works the field treats as related. The resulting graph then exposes clusters and hubs that individual reading would not reveal.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-citationverified
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