Unveiling Novelty Evolution in the field of Library and Information Science in China
2026-06-29 • Digital Libraries
Digital LibrariesComputation and LanguageComputers and Society
AI summaryⓘ
The authors studied how new or original research papers are in the field of Library and Information Science in China from 2000 to 2022. They found that papers on some topics, like archival research, tend to be less novel, while papers on journal evaluation and patent technology are more novel. Over time, the overall novelty of papers has increased. The authors also discovered that more novel papers often involve collaboration between researchers at different institutions, whereas less novel papers are more often written by solo authors. This work helps show how topic choice and teamwork affect the originality of research.
Library and Information SciencenoveltyBERTopiccombinatorial innovationChinese Social Sciences Citation Indexresearch collaborationinter-institutional collaborationarchival researchjournal evaluationpatent technology
Authors
Chen Yang, Yuzhuo Wang, Chengzhi Zhang
Abstract
This study analyzes the novelty distribution of scholarly papers in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) in China, with a focus on differences across journals, research topics, and time periods. Articles published in Chinese LIS journals indexed by the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) from 2000 to 2022 were collected as the research sample. BERTopic was applied to paper abstracts to identify research topics, and novelty scores were calculated based on the combinatorial innovation theory of reference pairs cited by focal papers. The study then examined the novelty of papers under different topics and further analyzed author collaboration patterns to explain how collaboration may be associated with paper novelty. The results show that archival research topics generally have lower novelty, whereas topics related to journal evaluation and patent technology display higher novelty in Chinese LIS research. Overall, the novelty of papers in this field has gradually increased over time. Papers with different topics and novelty levels also show distinct collaboration patterns: low-novelty topics are more often associated with solo authorship, while high-novelty topics tend to involve a higher proportion of inter-institutional collaboration. This study reveals the topic-level characteristics and temporal trends of novelty in Chinese LIS research and provides a new perspective for understanding how research topics and collaboration patterns influence scholarly innovation.