The academics of Intangible Cultural Heritage - knowledge map analysis based on CiteSpace (2003-2019)

Previous research in the academic field of intangible cultural heritage has mainly focused on qualitative research from the macro-perspective, and quantitative methodology has seldom been used to explore the relationship between the research trajectory and resulting literature from the micro-perspective. Based on the Web of Science database and CiteSpace bibliometric analysis software, this paper analyses 1,097 papers on intangible cultural heritage produced between 2003 and 2019 from the co-citation network (author, research institution and journal), the scientific field, and the dominant or hot topics, and reveals the evolution and distribution of publications in the field of intangible cultural heritage across the globe. This paper describes global trends in academic research on intangible cultural heritage, leading to the shared innovation of crosscultural horizontal communication and the sustainable exploration of vertical inheritance.