Free software for mapping bibliometric networks.
At a Glance
| Publisher | Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University |
| Coverage | not a database — a desktop tool that builds and visualizes bibliometric networks (co-authorship, co-citation, keyword co-occurrence) from data you supply |
| Access | free |
| Regional | global. |
Our Take
VOSviewer is the standard free tool for turning bibliographic data into readable network maps — co-authorship, co-citation, and keyword-co-occurrence visualizations that reveal a field’s structure, its clusters, and its emerging fronts. It reads exports from Scopus, Web of Science, Dimensions, OpenAlex, and more, so it’s database-agnostic. It visualizes data you provide rather than sourcing it, so your map is only as good as your export. Use it to map and communicate the structure of a literature; feed it clean, deduplicated data for trustworthy maps.
Power Tips
- Export from Scopus, WoS, or OpenAlex and build a VOSviewer keyword-co-occurrence map to see a field’s clusters and emerging fronts at a glance
- deduplicate your input first (Issue 3) so the network isn’t distorted by repeated records.
Alternatives & Complements
CiteSpace · OpenAlex · Connected Papers · Bibliometrix.
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