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What strategies can be used to refine a keyword co-occurrence map in VOSviewer (e.g., thesaurus file, minimum occurrence threshold) to improve clarity and insight?

My initial maps are often cluttered with synonymous terms or peripheral keywords. I know tools like thesaurus files and thresholds exist, but I’m looking for proven, tactical advice on the refinement workflow from someone who's done this iteratively.

 

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By Krupa Answered 5 months ago

I would recommend a two-stage refinement process. First, apply a minimum occurrence threshold; I often start by filtering out terms appearing less than 5-10 times to remove noise. Second, and most crucially, build a custom thesaurus file. I have seen this transform messy maps. Manually review your term list to group synonyms (e.g., "AI," "artificial intelligence," "machine intelligence") into a single representative label. This merging consolidates the network, making core themes much more prominent and interpretable. Iterate these steps until the map stabilizes.

 

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