Mapping the Humanities: Informetric analyses of literary research through A&CHI data Björn Hammarfelt 1,2 and Fredrik Åström 3 1 bjorn.hammarfelt@abm.uu.se 1 Uppsala University, Department of ALM, Thunbergsvägen, 3H, 751 26 Uppsala (Sweden) 2 Virtual Knowledge Studio for the humanities and the social sciences, Amsterdam (the Netherlands) 3 fredrik.astrom@lub.lu.se Lund University Libraries, Head Office, P.O. Box 134, 221 00 Lund (Sweden) Abstract This article explores the possibility of mapping humanities research through informetric analyses. In order to do so a dataset of articles in the field of comparative literature was downloaded from Web of Science: Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI). The material gathered from 37 literature journals covering the years 1996- 2006 was subjected to co-citation analysis and visualized. The results show that distinct clusters could be indentified both when using authors and journals, but co-citation of authors seems to be the most fruitful method for depicting intellectual structure within the humanities. In all are the results encouraging for those aiming to use bibliometric methods for studying and mapping research areas within the humanities. Introduction Mapping research fields and visualizing intellectual structures is one the main research areas in informetric research, not the least by utilizing informetric analyses on data from bibliographical databases (e.g. Chen, 2003; White & Griffith, 1981). The validity of e.g. co- citation analyses for mapping research fields is generally accepted, even though the perception of a research field can vary quite substantially depending on choice of material or methodology (e.g. Åström, 2002; Moya-Anegón et al, 2006). However, research fields in the humanities have not been mapped utilizing e.g. co-citation analysis, with a few exceptions (Kreuzman 2001; Leydesdorff & Salah 2010). This is largely depending on reservations against the inadequate coverage in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI) database; and the assumption that publishing patterns and citation practices in the humanities differs from other fields to the extent where traditional analyses means little or nothing (Nederhof 2006; Hellqvist, 2010). Many of the assumptions, as well as reservations against informetric mapping of the humanities, stems from a number of studies into using informetric indicators for evaluating the impact of humanities research (e.g. Moed et al, 2002, Archambault et al, 2006; Linmans, 2010): where the coverage of A&HCI and the lack of citations between contemporary scholars presents a real issue. However, extending the analysis to non-source items and adjusting the methods to accommodate the citation patterns of the humanities (Hammarfelt, forthcoming) has shown that analysis of intellectual structure within the humanities is possible. The aim of this paper is to study the intellectual structure of ‘literature studies’ using a selection of 37 literature journals indexed in the A&HCI index. Two different approaches are tested: first a ‘regular’ analysis of co-citation pairs and second an analysis in which the strongest links has been selected. The analysis is then complimented by a co-citation analysis of journals. Methods and material The material selection process started with identifying literature journals indexed in Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Thomson ISI, 2007). To assure the journals focus on literature