A Comparative Study on Register Based on Chinese and International Studies: A Scientometric Analysis in CiteSpace (2010-2021)

Abstract

This paper conducts a comprehensive review and comparative analysis of the research on register published in Chinese and international authoritative journals from 2010 to 2021 by employing CiteSpace 5.8.R3, a visual bibliometric software. It describes the number of publications, the keywords with the strongest citation bursts, research institutions, journals and influential authors, and pinpoints the principal frontiers of register. The results indicate that the number of publications of Chinese register research has shown a significant downward trend on the whole, while international register research has shown a significant upward trend on the whole. The journal of high-cited papers on register studies in China has a low impact factor, while international hot papers on register studies have a high impact factor. Chinese scholars focus on the different research perspectives of the register (systemic functional linguistics, multidimensional analysis and corpus), while international research pays attention to register variation, especially English variation and Spanish variation, and register in academic writing. Influential scholars leading the trend of register research include Biber and Rooy. The findings of this study would provide some academic and pedagogical implications on the register for Chinese scholars.