R Studio & Javascript to analyze your Zotero reference library

My proposal to present the conference “Vous êtes dans une taverne… Retour sur 50 ans de jeux de rôle ” [You are in a tavern… A look back at 50 years of role-playing games] was accepted. Entitled “Historical evolution and bibliometric analysis of academic research on tabletop role-playing in academic publications”, it mainly consists of carrying out a descriptive study of the academic publication on tabletop role-playing since the 1980s.

Since 2014, I have undertaken to collect academic references relating to the study of tabletop role-playing games. This approach resulted in the creation of a database freely accessible via Zotero, comprising a total of 2400 references. Among these, there are 460 peer reviewed articles, 180 books, 300 theses, and many others.

The bibliographic database is freely accessible at: https://www.zotero.org/groups/446523 . Since 2019, Michael Freudenthal has joined me to manage this database.

Last Christmas, I gave you my R

In order to carry out a well-reproducible analysis, not only do I provide open access to the data but I also provide the algorithms that allow them to be analyzed. Everything is posted on GitHub at https://github.com/pmartinolli/ZoteroRnalysis

First, I chose to use the R Studio software because I learned to use it in the context of my work, also because it is powerful and free software, and finally because it is easy to request to ChatGPT 3.5 from OpenAI to fix my coding bugs (which I do very often).

The principle is simple:

• I export the bibliographic references from Zotero in the formatcsv
• I import the data into R Studio
• I grind the data in R Studio
• R Studio produces nice graphs and other tables for mecsv
• Along the way, I align my data with that of Wikidata to augment my data (in a process called "reconciliation", done by the OpenRefine software ). For example, with the list of names of academic journals, I will look for the date the journal was created and its country of origin to spot trends.

Secondly, my co-worker Philippe taught me how to use the platform ObservableHQ and JavaScript. I decided to translate part of the R code in JavaScript to benefit from the very user-friendly interface and visualisation functions of this platform. Anybody can make a fork of the code, upload their references and analyze them (in the open with a free account).

The code is here: https://observablehq.com/@pascaliensis/zoterojsnalysis

All I want for this graph is you

The original post was in French for Christmas (to explain the silly titles).

Here are some nice extractions in graphic form. Note that these are not the final versions because, between now and the conference, I will still “shampoo the data” to correct and improve it.

For the rest, I will meet you in Reims (I will be by Zoom), or on this blog, or later in a more definitive publication.

Appendix: text of proposal at the conference

“In the presentation, I will explain how the compilation of peer-reviewed articles and works published since the 1980s, both in English and French, is almost exhaustive and makes it possible to generalize the analyzes that will follow. I will also highlight possible selection and indexing biases that may be present.

“My project consists of carrying out a historical and bibliometric analysis of publications such as peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. This analysis will highlight the variations observed over the years, in various disciplines, for different research subjects, as well as the issues surrounding publication (notably pre-publications, systematic reviews, potentially predatory publications, retractions, etc. .). I will show, for example, how the first publications of the 1980s aimed to explain the rise in popularity of this passion and to respond to the moral panics of the time. Likewise, I will illustrate how recent publications focus more on themes such as gender, actual play and psychotherapeutic aspects linked to the practice of role-playing. I will also highlight the great diversity of academic fields addressing the study of role-playing, ranging from traditional disciplines such as sociology, psychology and the humanities, to more atypical fields such as music, neuroscience and the philosophy. This presentation also extends internationally, encompassing Europe, North America, as well as other parts of Latin America and Asia. I will highlight the predominance of the game Dungeons & Dragons , while identifying other games studied or mentioned alongside this preponderance.

“To enrich this analysis, I will discuss the theoretical and practical reflection of the gaming community on their leisure in parallel with the academic environment. I will also review conferences, congresses and symposia devoted to role-playing, as well as dissertations and theses addressing this subject. Finally, I will discuss citation practices in tabletop roleplaying, in its study, and in its communities of practitioners. »