Investigating the integrated landscape of the intellectual topology of bioinformatics

We aim at identifying (1) whether and how various data sources influence mapping an intellectual structure of the field of bioinformatics, and (2) the landscape of bioinformatics by integrating those sources. To this end, we conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis by harvesting bibliographic information from DBLP, PubMed Central, and Web of Science. We then measure and compare topological characteristics of networks generated using these sources. The results show a dichotomous pattern dominated by PubMed Central and WoS. In addition, a few influential scientists in the field of bioinformatics receive very high citations from their colleagues, which is a driving force to bloom the field. These few scientists are connected to a much larger research community. Most of the researchers are intellectually linked within a few steps, in spite of the domain’s interdisciplinary characteristics. Particularly, influential authors consist of a small world. We also identify that there is not a coherent body of discipline in bioinformatics since the field is still under development. Finally, the journals and conferences indexed by each source cover different research topics, and PubMed Central is more inclusive than DBLP as an indexing database.