Identifying and Mapping the Intellectual Structure of Decision Analysis Studies: An Author Co-Citation Analysis (1966-2007)

This paper aims to explore the theoretical essentials of knowledge production in decision analysis studies, from a dataset of 702 journal articles. A computer-aided co-citation net- work analysis of 12,853 citations that have been meticulously voted by over ten thousand authors traces the historical timeline of the development paths and paradigms shift of decision analysis studies. Based on the analysis, we divided the development of research on decision analysis studies into three stages: initializing stage (1966-1983), developing stage (1984-1996), and declining stage (1997-2007). We ranked overall first author citations, article citations and journal citations for each stage. Using network analysis, we mapped the co-citation network for each stage and analyzed the centrality of top 27, 31 and 25 articles in three different stages. This study not only draws a clearer picture of decision analysis development, but also offers some useful information for researchers in planning their future research in this area.