Mapping the landscape of Internet Studies: Text mining of social science journal articles 2000-2009

What does ‘Internet studies’ entail as a field of social science research? We aim to answer the question by mapping research themes, theorization, and methodology of Internet studies based on 27,000+ articles published in Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index journals over the last 10 years. In analyzing the articles, we adopt a ‘bottom-up’ approach – classifying keywords of the Internet studies without any a priori categorization – to identify the boundaries, major divisions, and basic elements of the field talis qualis. The research strategy results in a number of expected, as well as surprising, patterns and trends. Internet studies have evolved into a viable field that has witnessed a booming decade. The field is clustered around four primary research themes: e-Health, e-Business, e-Society, and Human–Technology Interactions. Two or three sub-themes with different research foci and methodologies emerge within each theme. The evolution of popular keywords in each sub-theme further shows that the Corresponding author: Tai-Quan Peng, Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau, China. Email: [email protected] 462846 NMS15510.1177/1461444812462846new media & societyPeng et al. 2012