Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Health Information Management 1735-7853 15 3 2018 08 23 Mapping Intellectual Structure of Health Literacy Area Based on Co-Word Analysis in Web of Science Database during the Years 1993-2017 Mapping Intellectual Structure of Health Literacy Area Based on Co-Word Analysis in Web of Science Database during the Years 1993-2017 139 145 11638 10.22122/him.v15i3.3577 FA Fatemeh Baji Assistant Professor, Knowledge and Information Science, Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Paramedical Sciences, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran 0000-0002-8405-3307 Fereydoun Azadeh Associate Professor, Medical Library and Information Science, Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran Medical University, Tehran, Iran Parastoo Parsaei-Mohammadi Lecturer, Knowledge and Information Science, Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Paramedical Sciences, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran 0000-0003-2719-0695 Shoukat Parmah MSc Student, Medical Library and Information Science, Department of Medical Library and Information Science, School of Paramedical Sciences, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran Journal Article 2018 04 11 Introduction: Creating an image of the conceptual structure of health literacy area, as well as the study of interdisciplinary and the relationship between its domains seems necessary. The present study examined the intellectual structure of health literacy area in Web of Science database using co-word analysis.Methods: This was a scientometrics research and bibliometric study, carried out using co-word analysis method. Social network analysis was used for this purpose. The research community compiled all the relevant scientific literature on the field of health literacy in Web of Science during the years 1993-2017. For data analysis, network integrity and centrality indices were used.Results: Clustering co-efficient (7.17) and network density (0.58) were high in the resulted network. Moreover, the intellectual structure of this domain consisted of eight subject clusters. Health care, psychiatry and psychology, public health, social sciences, communications, health services, and medical education had the highest levels of centrality throughout the entire network.Conclusion: The results show that the intellectual structure of the health literacy domain in general has an integrate structure with a proper relationship between its concepts and subjects. This shows the essence of this area, which is able to establish a consistent and sustained relationship with the social sciences and humanities as a branch of medical science. Finally, the results of this study will help health literacy researchers to understand the research trend of this area in future studies based on the identified areas of influence. Introduction: Creating an image of the conceptual structure of health literacy area, as well as the study of interdisciplinary and the relationship between its domains seems necessary. The present study examined the intellectual structure of health literacy area in Web of Science database using co-word analysis.Methods: This was a scientometrics research and bibliometric study, carried out using co-word analysis method. Social network analysis was used for this purpose. The research community compiled all the relevant scientific literature on the field of health literacy in Web of Science during the years 1993-2017. For data analysis, network integrity and centrality indices were used.Results: Clustering co-efficient (7.17) and network density (0.58) were high in the resulted network. Moreover, the intellectual structure of this domain consisted of eight subject clusters. Health care, psychiatry and psychology, public health, social sciences, communications, health services, and medical education had the highest levels of centrality throughout the entire network.Conclusion: The results show that the intellectual structure of the health literacy domain in general has an integrate structure with a proper relationship between its concepts and subjects. This shows the essence of this area, which is able to establish a consistent and sustained relationship with the social sciences and humanities as a branch of medical science. Finally, the results of this study will help health literacy researchers to understand the research trend of this area in future studies based on the identified areas of influence. https://him.mui.ac.ir/article_11638_9bd61ffe923a9953840d210e3b6111dd.pdf