Mapping the Science of Soft Operations Research Based on ISI Subject Areas

The present study aimed at visualizing the Soft Operations Research (SOR) domain. For this purpose, the six-phase mapping process was used. In this process, the first phase deals with extracting the data. Analysis unit is selected in the second phase. In the third and fourth phases, frequency of articles is studied and similarities among the extracted articles are determined, respectively. In the fifth phase, the related areas are identified by using a clustering algorithm. Finally, subject areas are mapped and analyzed by using the clustering steps in the sixth phase. Based on the results of the mapping process in this research, six clusters in the areas of management and social sciences, engineering sciences, behavioral sciences, geology and environmental studies, sociology and natural resources and mathematics were obtained.