Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how using bibliometrics and information visualization can provide a “picture at glance” from which decision-makers can structure processes, thus organizing outputs/outcomes from inception.

Design/methodology/approach

This study carried out a bibliometric-oriented review on studies on higher education students' retention; 1,962 records were downloaded from Scopus and grouped into three five-year intervals: 2002–2006 (n = 236), 2007–2011 (n = 584) and 2012–2016 (n = 1,142). Centrality measures and text-mining techniques were used to analyse data.

Findings

Clusters of academic networks were identified by using co-citation analysis. Also, terms with high semantic value were ranked and grouped by using automatic term extraction and co-word analysis.

Practical implications

The bibliometric approach used in this study identifies clusters of authors specialized in student retention, as well as detects the primary terms within this research field.

Originality/value

This paper provides evidence that a bibliometric approach in conjunction with data visualization can be a valuable complement to in-depth literature reviews for the decision-making process.

中文翻译：

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应用文献计量学和信息可视化在高等教育机构的决策过程中

目的

本文的目的是分析使用文献计量学和信息可视化如何提供“概览图”，决策者可以从中一目了然地构建流程，从而从一开始就组织输出/结果。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究对高等教育学生的保留率进行了以文献计量为导向的回顾。从Scopus下载了1,962条记录，并分为三个五年间隔：2002–2006（n  = 236），2007–2011（n  = 584）和2012–2016（n  = 1,142）。使用集中度度量和文本挖掘技术来分析数据。

发现

使用共引分析法确定学术网络的集群。此外，通过使用自动术语提取和共词分析，对具有较高语义价值的术语进行排名和分组。

实际影响

本研究中使用的文献计量方法确定了专门研究学生保留的作者群体，并检测了该研究领域内的主要术语。

创意/价值

本文提供的证据表明，文献计量学方法与数据可视化相结合可以为决策过程的深入文献综述提供宝贵的补充。