Abstract:

Public Policy Discipline has evolved continuously since the 1950s. Whilst public policy studies have increased in number it has become difficult to monitor the evolution of the discipline via scientific publications. The Web of Science (WoS), in this respect, serves researchers as the most inclusive database. Science Mapping Analysis, which is implemented according to the data retrieved from bibliographic sources, allows to see the change in the conceptual structure of a specific scientific field over time. This study aims to understand the change in the conceptual structure of Public Policy Discipline in the period of 1980-2014 by implementing Science Mapping Analysis. The analysis is implemented by using SciMAT, which has been developed for this purpose. Since the 1990s, it has been seen that the thematic concentration of public policy studies has varied and new research areas have emerged while others have declined. Keywords: public policy discipline, bibliometrics, conceptual evolution, science mapping analysis, SciMAT.

Keywords: