Assessment of global law and psychiatry research in the period of 1993-2012: Review and forecast on research emphases and research trends (Part-II)

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the present study is to analyze highly cited articles and global research emphases and trends of law and psychiatry (L&P) research during the period of 1993 to 2012 from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Besides the analysis of highly cited articles to learn about the classic articles and intellectual base of the L&P research domain, an attempt is made to detect research emphases and trends of the study field.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study applies quantitative analyses of citations of scientific publications to find highly cited articles and summarizes research hotspots and trends on L&P research articles from WOS during 1993-2012 using statistical analysis of words in titles, KeyWords Plus, author keywords and co-keywords.

Findings

The top 21 highly cited articles of research on L&P were found; most of the highly cited papers used survey research to measure patterns of violence of psychiatric patients. This present study identified forensic psychiatry, mental health and criminal offenders were the continuing mainstream topics in the L&P field and risk assessment, risk factors and risk management of violent behavior, legislation for sexual offences, mental health courts, recidivism and expert testimony were recent research emphases and trends of the study field. On the contrary, psychiatric hospitalization, psychiatrist-patient, community and services were not mainstream topics in the study field and were of decreasing importance and popularity in L&P research. Additionally, the topics of violent behavior and risk assessment have developed to a significant subgroup of L&P research. Finally, research emphases and trends in the L&P field were found based on the co-keywords cluster map and density map.

Originality/value

This is the first study to quantify and detect research emphases and trends in L&P from the WOS during 1993-2012, which may provide the groundwork for future studies of the L&P research domain, and offer some important suggestions and implications for professional researchers, specialists, publications’ editors and public policy makers concerned with the domain.

Citation

Lv, H. (2017), "Assessment of global law and psychiatry research in the period of 1993-2012: Review and forecast on research emphases and research trends (Part-II)", The Electronic Library, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 1162-1176. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2017-0081