Abstract

Information behavior is an important area of research in library and information science (LIS) that has evolved over the last 75 years. The aim of this study is to investigate the recent trends of information behavior research by providing insights into emerging topical areas within information behavior. To conduct this study, the bibliographic data from Scopus was used, and the trends of information behavior were traced by using variations of key terms used in information behavior research, such as "information behavior", "information seeking behavior", and "information needs." In addition, the trends were analyzed in terms of content words in the title, highly cited journal articles, disciplinary categories, and author keywords. Information behavior research has its roots in LIS, but the findings of the study reveal that information behavior has expanded to other disciplines by intersecting a variety of topical areas. In particular, this study showed that information behavior in the health/medicine domain has become a predominant emerging topical area of research. In order to enhance our understanding of complex human behavior, future research should focus more on interdisciplinary aspects by measuring the scope of information behavior.