Highlights: 

• Bibliometric data analysis is a tool for evaluating the performance and impact of researchers, journals, and institutions.
• Bibliometrix R Package and its webapp Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace are commonly used software programs for bibliometric data analysis.

Bibliometric data analysis is important for evaluating the performance and impact of researchers, journals, and institutions. There are several main software programs that are commonly used to analyze bibliometric data, each of which has its own strengths and limitations.

One of the most widely used software programs for bibliometric data analysis is VOSviewer. Developed by Van Eck and Waltman, VOSviewer is a free and open-source software program that allows users to create visual maps of bibliometric data, such as co-citation and co-word networks. VOSviewer is particularly useful for analyzing large datasets, as it can handle millions of records and provides a range of advanced features, such as cluster detection and visualization of temporal trends.

(Van Eck, N., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. scientometrics, 84(2), 523-538.)

Another popular software program for bibliometric data analysis is Bibliometrix R Package. Bibliometrix is an R package that allows users to perform bibliometric analyses on large scientific databases, such as the Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions, Cochrane, Lens.org and PubMed. It provides a suite of functions for data retrieval, cleaning, and analysis, including bibliometric indicators, co-citation and co-word networks, co-authorship analysis, and journal impact factors. Bibliometrix also has a web-app called Biblioshiny, which allows users with no coding skills to perform bibliometric analyses with a graphical user interface.

(Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of informetrics, 11(4), 959-975.)

A third widely used software program is CiteSpace. Developed by Chen, CiteSpace is a free and open-source software program that allows users to analyze bibliometric data, such as citation networks and temporal trends. CiteSpace is particularly useful for identifying patterns and trends in the literature, such as the emergence of new research areas, and for tracking the development of a field over time.

(Chen, C. (2014). The citespace manual. College of Computing and Informatics, 1(1), 1-84.)

It's worth noting that, besides these software programs, there are also online platforms that provide bibliometric analysis services, such as Google Scholar Metrics, Scopus Metrics, and Elsevier's SciVal. These platforms allow researchers to analyze bibliometric data and evaluate the performance and impact of their own research, as well as that of others in their field.

There are several main software programs that are commonly used to analyze bibliometric data, each of which has its own strengths and limitations. VOSviewer, Bibliometrix R Package and its web-app Biblioshiny, and CiteSpace are popular open-source software programs that are useful for creating visual maps and network diagrams of bibliometric data, while online platforms such as Google Scholar Metrics, Scopus Metrics, and SciVal provide bibliometric analysis services. Researchers should choose the software that best suits their needs and research question.