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 thisprocess, the first phase deals with extracting the data. Analysis unit is selectedin the second phase. In the third and fourth phases, frequency of articles isstudied and similarities among the extracted articles are determined,respectively. In the fifth phase, the related areas are identified by using aclustering algorithm. Finally, subject areas are mapped and analyzed by usingthe clustering steps in the sixth phase. Based on the results of the mappingprocess in this research, six clusters in the areas of management and socialsciences, engineering sciences, behavioral sciences, geology and environmentalstudies, sociology and natural resources and mathematics were obtained.