Trend analysis of virtual community productivity based on SSCI database by bibliometric methodology

As a popular phenomenon today, virtual community is significantly altering people who work, spend their free time and interact socially. Furthermore, virtual community has been receiving a growing attention in the academic literature. This study aims to investigate the current state of the academic literature regarding virtual community and analyze its knowledge base by using bibliometric method. All articles were collected from SSCI database during 1994–2010. The result indicated that the literature productivity on virtual community topic is still growing. The result also found that the author productivity distribution data related to virtual community matched Lotka's law. Moreover, the twenty-eight core journals in virtual community issue were identified utilizing the Bradford's law.