[Core research areas on addiction in Spain through the Web of Science bibliographic coupling analysis (2000-2013)]

The present study identifies the main Spanish core research areas in the area of addictions through the bibliographic coupling analysis of the publications at the Web of Science under the substance abuse heading. The bibliographic coupling methodology is the analytical procedure that determines the thematic-intellectual proximity of the documents under consideration through the identification of the shared or simultaneously cited bibliography by those documents. A factor analysis and network analysis have been carried out to cluster documents, graphically represent the existing core research areas, and analyse the interrelations between them. We have identified 30 core research areas. Alcohol is the topic of attention of 17 areas and cocaine has a strong presence in 6. Heroin and opiates are only present as prominent substances in 4 areas and cannabis and tobacco in other two for each substance. It has been found that there is a significant degree of fragmentation in the area, with the existence of numerous research foci but with few connections with each other and few documents showing shared common knowledge. Also noteworthy is the large number of emerging research areas, reflecting an incipient stage in many of the research topics. Consideration must be placed in promoting scientific consensus and cohesion of the discipline as well as to encouraging the consolidation of main lines that respond to the social problems and research challenges.