A Bibliometric Analysis of Hermeneutics Studies (2012-2021)

Abstract

Hermeneutics (interpretation and understanding) has built a close connection with other subjects that need interpretative methods. With the development of society, the link between hermeneutics and other subjects becomes more profound, and at the same time, all of them further developed. It is essential to review the research on hermeneutics and explore its research trend. In this paper, two instruments, CiteSpace and VOSviewer, are applied to the bibliometric analysis. The Web of Science core collection database provides a fundamental resource for collecting data. Three thousand and one hundred and one articles are extracted and analyzed. Those data spanning ten years since 2012 can provide a clear and complete picture of research on hermeneutics. Through analysis, it can be found that 1) different regions or institutions’ studies on hermeneutics present an imbalance, 2) this field combines more with medical aspects and also has promoted the development of other subjects, and 3) an initial downward trend is shown, 4) the exploration of translation filed or relevant research in terms of hermeneutics more emerge after 2017. The paper hopes that a clear and complete picture of hermeneutic study is presented to provide new perspectives for scholars and promote further development on subjects with the current trend.