Getting Started

To get started with VOSviewer, you may want to take a look at some of the sources of information listed below.

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VOSviewer manual

The VOSviewer manual provides detailed and up-to-date information on the functionality of VOSviewer. The manual can also be accessed using the Manual button in VOSviewer.

Open VOSviewer manual

 

VOSviewer book chapter

VOSviewer is discussed in detail in a recent book chapter. The chapter provides a tutorial in which the use of VOSviewer is demonstrated in a step-by-step manner. The chapter is based on VOSviewer version 1.5.5. Some of the improvements and extensions introduced in the most recent versions of VOSviewer are therefore not covered in the chapter. In addition to VOSviewer, the chapter also discusses the CitNetExplorer tool for visualizing and analyzing citation networks of publications.

Open VOSviewer book chapter

VOSviewer paper

VOSviewer was originally introduced in a paper published in Scientometrics in 2010. In the meantime, VOSviewer has been improved and extended in many ways, so the paper is not fully up-to-date anymore. However, it still provides a useful introduction into the main ideas underlying VOSviewer.

Open VOSviewer paper

AIDA bookletAIDA booklet

The AIDA booklet introduces diverse case studies on research positioning and trend identification. These case studies are relevant for PhD candidates, researchers, group leaders, and policy makers. Many of the case studies make use of VOSviewer.

Open AIDA booklet

Comments

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  • Eti Salafas December 2nd, 2023 12:55 am
    Reply
  • Rosita Nur Safitri November 29th, 2023 5:47 am
    Tidak bisa dipakai
    Reply
  • Georges Casamatta November 26th, 2023 2:42 pm
    Hello,
    While I have successfully run vos viewer a number of times, I just received the following error message when trying to create a citation map:
    An unexpected error has occurred (java.lang.NegativeArraySizeException: -2052726983 at line 206 of Arrays.java). VOSviewer will be terminated.
    Any help is appreciated!
    Reply
  • fatemeh shafiee November 24th, 2023 11:25 am
    Reply
  • Wilbur November 24th, 2023 5:35 am
    Hello. I am trying to export a graph as an SVG file . However, I am getting the following error many times:
    "This page contains the following errors:
    error on line 16 at column 7: Encoding error"
    For other format like PNG, jpg do not have this issue. Please help me with this, thank you!
    Reply
  • Tharani Munusamy November 23rd, 2023 5:59 pm
    Reply
  • ramin kheiri November 22nd, 2023 8:22 am
    تاثیر ایجاد حباب‌های میکرونی در ترکیب دانه‌بندی نانومیکروسیلیس با سیمان و کفارین و الیاف در ساخت بتن سبک سلولی سازه‌ای برای رسیدن به مقاومت بیشتر، جمع شدگی کمتر و جرم کمتر
    Reply
  • dwi indriani November 16th, 2023 5:31 am
    contoh judul skripsi ekonomi tentang inflasi
    Reply
  • naning harningsih November 14th, 2023 1:07 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:12 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:12 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:11 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:11 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:11 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:10 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:10 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:09 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:08 pm
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  • First name and last name November 10th, 2023 8:07 pm
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  • sara ghersi November 3rd, 2023 2:28 pm
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  • Shweta November 2nd, 2023 12:20 pm
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  • Diya November 1st, 2023 2:43 pm
    How do we start generating a map on our topic?
    Reply
  • Anwesha October 31st, 2023 3:47 pm
    Reply
  • Wiwiet Hervianti October 31st, 2023 2:20 am
    Vosviewer
    Reply
  • Fatemeh October 30th, 2023 2:39 pm
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  • naning October 27th, 2023 3:37 pm
    Reply
  • AINA LIYANA October 26th, 2023 3:21 pm
    Hi, I have the map, but how do I identify the research gap using the map? I still lost.
    Reply
  • Aarón Luis October 25th, 2023 7:16 pm
    Reply
  • Francesca October 24th, 2023 11:11 am
    Hi! Is it possible to see which papers belong to each cluster?
    Thank you! Francesca
    Reply
    • Rachel Horst October 24th, 2023 2:09 pm
      This is something I've been trying to figure out as well! Help on this would be greatly appreciated!
      Reply
      • Sebastiano Caleffi October 26th, 2023 3:44 pm
        I haven't used it in a while, but you should be able to see items grouped by clusters in the 'items' tab once you have generated a map.
        If you look at the figure at page 8 of the manual, you'll see the 'items' tab to the left of the image, between the 'file' and 'analysis' tabs.
        Does this help?
        Reply
  • Yegane October 16th, 2023 9:35 pm
    Reply
  • Rachel Horst October 14th, 2023 7:51 pm
    This is a fantastic tool. I'm just wondering - is it possible to access the citation from the node? The visualization is helpful but can it work in reverse? This seems like a very useful feature but I can't figure it out.
    Reply
    • Sebastiano Caleffi October 26th, 2023 4:51 pm
      It depends from what visualisation you are using. As far as I know, you can do this only if you display a 'citation' network, by document - so if you display a map of which articles are connected by a citation. If you do, and you double click on a node, it will open up a link to the original article (not sure if this works only if the reference contains the DOI).
      If you are visualising a co-citation network on the other hand then no, you can't reverse access the citation just by clicking on the node. In this type of visualisation, VOSViewer uses the citation data to build individual 'tags' for each document in order to generate a co-citation network, so there is just a string of text behind each node. There is no link VOSViewer can use to redirect you to the original article, because the tags the software is using are generated each time you run the analysis.
      This is my understanding, if anyone else knows how to implement this let us know!
      Reply
  • Anisa pse October 4th, 2023 3:34 am
    Reply
  • Aliya October 2nd, 2023 7:22 am
    Belajar
    Reply
  • Philip October 1st, 2023 2:15 pm
    One of my PhD students found the solution to multiple authors appearing on each 'line' when you run author co-citation analysis in Scopus. The solution is to export a "saved list" rather than the initial search results.
    1. First save the filtered list of documents on the search page to "Saved Lists".
    2. Reopen the list from the "saved lists" section.
    3. Then export the list to a CSV file from the document list page.
    Reply
  • Stefan Carlstein September 26th, 2023 1:50 pm
    Hi! The link to the AIDA booklet generates an "Access Denied" message. Although I found the booklet here: https://research.tudelft.nl/en/publications/research-positioning-amp-trend-identification-a-data-analytics-to (there is also a direct link to the PDF: https://research.tudelft.nl/files/40154954/AIDA_Booklet_V2.2.pdf)
    Reply
  • Yuli September 23rd, 2023 1:56 pm
    hai I have trouble when I want to open this software after download.
    this is the statement warning "error: could not create the Java Virtual Machine. Error: a fatal exception has occurred. program will exit." could you please tell me how to fixed it?. I have already downloaded this software twice and get the same statement warning.
    Reply
    • Erik October 23rd, 2023 6:58 pm
      Check if you have another software using Java. Software like IBM SPSS install their own version of java and VOSVIEWER tries to work with that. In that case you have to include the java directory in the PATH variable in environment variables and put it in the top
      Reply
  • Taya C September 11th, 2023 2:57 am
    Has anyone been able to resolve the issue with Scopus changing the delimiters in csv exports? I've been unable to complete any analyses since this change.

    I'm hoping that VosViewer will be updated to address this issue but would love tips from other users!
    Reply
  • Sunge R August 25th, 2023 10:41 pm
    Thank you for the platform. I am working on a bibliometric literature review article. I generated a Network Visualization of keyword co-occurrences. I took screenshots of the visualizations and included them in my paper. However, the journal editor suggests that I need to work with the output from VoSviewer (and recommends MS Power Point) in order to mark the clusters with dotted lines or circles.
    Anyone who can help how I export the visualizations in PPT or word?
    Reply
    • Philip September 28th, 2023 9:07 am
      Hi
      Easy. Either use export screenshot or select the map and paste into ppt. Once the map is in ppt you can insert circle lines around the coaster and insert text to name the clusters. Similarly, you can use insert text function to insert text boxes to name more of the nodes.
      This is particularly important for journals that have print version where the map will be produced in grayscale.
      Reply
  • nakissa barzegar August 16th, 2023 7:22 am
    Dear sir/madam
    i am using Microsoft surface 6 pro with win11. although java have been installed, the vosviewer does not work and this message has been shown "Error:could not create java virtual machine. a fatal exception has occurred. program will exit".
    please help me to solve it
    tnx
    Reply
  • Philip Hallinger August 12th, 2023 1:05 am
    Well, that's one of the stupider requirements that I've heard from a journal editor. And after publishing 250 articles, I've heard a lot of stupid requirements!
    I thought that I'd suggest a workaround by creating a thesaurus file that would replace the lower case with title case names. However, when I tested it myself, it didn't work. So this appears to be something integral to the program code. Maybe Prof W. will have an option for you, but maybe not.
    In the meantime I would go back to the editor with a three point strategy.
    1. Explain again that it's not possible with the software.
    2. You might also point out that such maps have been published in numerous journals (name a few prestigious journals in your field that have published maps generated in VOSviewer).
    3. Finally, note that this is akin to SPSS output that is often published in figures that include text in non-standard formats.
    If there is no way to do it in VOSviewer, and the editor still insists that this MUST be done, then your only alternative would be to copy and paste the maps into powerpoint. Create new title case labels using the insert text box function. Then put the new labels over the old ones. However, this will be very time consuming and probably not look very good in the end if you have a map with more than 100 items on it.
    Good luck!
    Reply
    • Andy Yeung August 16th, 2023 8:47 am
      Dear Philip,
      To replace the lower case with title case names, it can be done by editing the VOSviewer map file (.txt). To get this file, click Save (not Screenshot > Save, but the direct Save button on the screen, right below Create and Open). Give the files a name and save the map file and network file. Then open the map file with Excel. You may need to use the 'Sort data to columns' function in Excel. Replace the lower case with title case names, then save the file. Remember to save it in .txt format but not .xls format.
      Back to VOSviewer, click Open. Choose the edited map file and the (no edit) network file. The map should look like what you want. See if it works.
      Reply
      • Shilpi Garg December 2nd, 2023 11:16 am
        Yes, its working and thanku so much.
        Reply
  • Hafeez Ur Rahim August 11th, 2023 10:43 pm
    I have worked on a publication involving bibliometric analysis, which is stuck with a query.
    The editor has asked to prepare the figures (author and country network maps) following English grammatical rules, i.e. to capitalize the initials of names of authors and countries.
    However, since the figures are software generated, I have not been able to resolve the query.
    I downloaded the data from the Web of Science Core Collection and used vosviewer for performing bibliometric analysis.
    Can somebody help in resolving the query for capitalizing the initials of author and country names.
    Thanking you in anticipation.
    Reply
  • Philip Hallinger August 5th, 2023 6:20 am
    Hi
    I am not writing today with a question, but rather to share how I've been using VOSviewer as a means of helping my first-year PhD students learn about the literature in their respective fields.
    I teach a first-term course for PhD students in which the objectives include 1. familiarizing themselves with key research in their topical areas (i.e., themes, authors, documents, journals), 2- document search, 3. data analysis, presentation, and interpretation, and 3. writing for publication.
    Initially students learn how to search in Scopus, run Scopus analytical tools, and export a document list to Excel. Then they learn step by step how to run selected data analyses in VOSviewer. Each student draws on these data to write a complete 8K-10K bibliometric review of research on his/her topic in a publishable format by the end of 15 weeks. About 50% of the students in each cohort have been able to publish their bibliometric reviews in Scopus Q1/Q2 journals, in either first or second year of the program.
    But whether or not they can publish the review is not actually the point here. The main takeaway is that by going through the process of conducting a bibliometric review the students have - in just 15 weeks - learned who the key authors are in their field of study, which documents MUST be read, which theories are pertinent to their topics, which journals they should read and seek to publish in, dominant themes, and the research front.
    I've been teaching doctoral seminars since 1984, and this is absolutely the fastest and most effective way that I have found to for PhD students to get up to speed on their topics. Of course, this doesn't mean that they have READ the top-cited documents, but at least they now know what documents and authors they should read in subsequent terms.
    If there are other PhD instructors who would like to see my syllabus, please send me an email at my last name @gmail.com.
    Philip Hallinger
    P.S. Apologies in advance to Prof Waltman if this is considered off-topic. However, I think users should be aware of other potential uses of the software.
    Reply
  • Rauf Ercan July 28th, 2023 5:33 pm
    I am writing a article these day, i need to the biliometric analysis and i would like to use your program. I am writing to inquire about your program. Because screen goes to macbook lock screen when i opened on VOSviewer and everything is not coming back to the home screen. When i am writing my password or fingerprint but returns to the same screen again. How can i do?
    Reply
  • Elizabeth Okine July 26th, 2023 10:43 pm
    Is there a way to export clustered items in VOSviewer?
    Reply
  • Sebastiano July 21st, 2023 11:39 am
    Hello, I've used VOSViewer before with great results, but I cannot run it on my new Macbook Pro with M1 chip work laptop. I installed Java through Homebrew --> Temurin, and created the required symlink, but when I try to run VOSViewer or launch it from web I always get the error message "Unable to load Java Runtime environment".
    Has anyone been able to use VOSViewer on a M1 Mac running Ventura 13.4.1?
    Thank you for the great work!
    All the best,
    Sebastiano
    Reply
    • Johanna Kremer July 24th, 2023 11:52 am
      Hello.
      I am actually experiencing the exact same Issues. Also did your steps but still receiving the same error message as you do.
      Can someone help please?
      best wishes and thank you.
      Johanna
      Reply
    • Raffaele July 29th, 2023 2:41 pm
      I have the same problem, just run it through the command line.
      Here I'm in the Application directory where it is installed:
      java -jar VOSviewer.app/Contents/Java/VOSviewer.jar
      Reply
      • Sebastiano July 31st, 2023 10:29 am
        This worked perfectly, thank you!
        Reply
  • Anthony Macedo July 17th, 2023 6:04 pm
    I encountered the 'not enough memory available' error multiple times. Following the manual, I entered the command 'java -Xmx4000m -jar VOSviewer.jar' in the command line, but the same error persisted. Furthermore, when I checked the available memory for VOSviewer in the 'About VOSviewer' section, it consistently showed a range of 1300 MB to 1500 MB, never close to the required 4000 MB specified in the command. Can I receive assistance in resolving this issue?
    Reply
  • Anthony Macedo July 17th, 2023 6:00 pm
    I encountered the 'not enough memory available' error multiple times. Following the manual, I entered the command 'java -Xmx4000m -jar VOSviewer.jar' in the command line, but the same error persisted. Furthermore, when I checked the available memory for VOSviewer in the 'About VOSviewer' section, it consistently showed a range of 1300 MB to 1500 MB, never close to the required 4000 MB specified in the command. Can I receive assistance in resolving this issue?"
    Reply
  • Monica Ghaly July 7th, 2023 7:59 pm
    Hello, how could ı merge scopus and WoS data and run on vosviewer.
    Reply
    • Philip July 24th, 2023 12:22 pm
      I don’t know of any way to merge WOS and Scopus data for use in VOSviewer. You have to choose between the two.
      Reply
  • Nirmal June 22nd, 2023 7:03 am
    I downloaded free trial file for my windows machine. It shows an error to download java script which I also did but still it shows an error which says It couldn't create a java virtual machine, a fatal exception has occurred.
    Can anyone help me what shall be done ?
    Reply
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