Knowledge map of creativity research based on keywords network and co-word analysis, 1992-2011

To clarify the spatial structure of creativity research can let us clearly understand the specific distribution of research paradigms, thus contributing to better discover other topics we need to study. We picked out 163 top keywords from 4,575 papers on creativity research in the Web of Science Database during the period of 1992-2011, and drawn the keywords network and it spatial structure of major research topics and paradigms by employing K-core of SNA, Co-word analysis, and MDS and the functions of software UCINET 6.0 and NetDraw. The analysis results show that there are five main topics on creativity research: practice applications of creativity, pathology and physiology of creativity, individual-level creativity, organizational-level creativity, and the basic theories and methodologies of creativity, and the regular spatial structure.