Social semiotics is now widely regarded as one of the leading research areas. This study is the first attempt to present a holistic overview of social semiotics based on the data in the Web of Science core collection database from 2001 to 2020. The study investigates, among other issues, social semiotics’ publishing tendency, the most productive authors, countries, institutions, and hotspots. The results exhibit a steady rise in its publications and citations. The current analysis verifies the growing quantitative and qualitative research contributions and influences of this field. Furthermore, what the journal focuses on are the innovative and contemporary themes, manifested predominantly in sign, multimodality, gender, experimental semiotics, advertising, culture, and social media, which involve a wide range of methodologies to make the research more acceptable and constructive. These results are expected to offer refreshing insights that inspire scholars in formulating scientific agendas and advising their research strategies, thereby facilitating substantial contributions to the domain.

中文翻译：

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社会符号学的文献计量和可视化分析：发展、热点和趋势方向

社会符号学现在被广泛认为是领先的研究领域之一。本研究首次尝试基于 Web of Science 核心合集数据库 2001 年至 2020 年的数据对社会符号学进行全面概述。国家、机构和热点。结果显示其出版物和引用稳步上升。当前的分析验证了该领域不断增长的定量和定性研究贡献和影响。此外，该杂志关注的是创新和当代主题，主要体现在符号、多模态、性别、实验符号学、广告、文化和社交媒体上，其中涉及广泛的方法，使研究更容易被接受和更具建设性。这些结果有望提供令人耳目一新的见解，激发学者们制定科学议程并为他们的研究策略提供建议，从而促进对该领域的重大贡献。