本研究建議以自組織映射圖上的視覺化資訊作為分析學術領域研究主題的方法。這個方法以論文的文字資料作為訓練資料。經過多次訓練後,自組織映射圖可以呈現學術領域內的重要研究主題上的論文分布情形與主題彼此之間的關連,並且進一步地將每個研究機構發表的論文分別映射到自組織映射圖上,可以了解它們在不同主題上的研究產出情形。本研究以臺灣資訊傳播學領域為範例,並利用相關系所碩士論文的文字資料產生這個領域的自組織映射圖。研究結果顯示在與其他不同方法的研究進行比較時,本研究產生之視覺化圖形能夠合適與有效地呈現資訊傳播學領域的重要研究主題。同時本研究也利用自組織映射圖的發現結果,進一步探討各個資訊傳播學系所的研究特色。
This study used self-organizing map technique to identify and visually present major research topic in the interdisciplinary field of ”information and communication studies” in Taiwan. Terms were extracted from bibliographic information of Master's theses produced by six such programs in Taiwan. With sufficient rounds of training, a self-organizing map that represents the field as a whole was created. The map affords visualization of information regarding the major topics of the field, their relationships, and the magnitude of the output associated with each topic. The results demonstrate that the self-organizing map technique was able to efficiently generate visualization of the field comparable to other methods. Department specific maps were also generated to help represent the strength of each institute.