Aim: The aim of this study is to examinethe structure of the knowledge creation process in nursing science and toinvestigate the dissemination of theoretical knowledge in other disciplines byanalyzing citations and social network data.
Method: This exploratory study evaluatedMetadata to find academic publications. Meleis’s Transition Theory was selectedas a case study. A majority of the publications that represented the transitiontheory were assigned as the core of the theory. Forward and backward citationswere used as agents of knowledge linkage to determine the dissemination of thetheory in the field of science. Social network analysis and visualization wereused to depict graphical and structural relations of the research front and theknowledge base.
Results: The knowledge base of theTransition Theory was built on 7 different information networks. The mosteffective and vast information network consisted of Meleis, AI as a researcherand the central information network, which is the journal of Nursing Research.Oncology, geriatrics, public health, and psychology in the areas of informationpropagation within the field of nursing were considered as research areas wherethe theoretical framework provided by the theory was rendered functional.
Conclusion: In recent years, the use oftheoretical frameworks has become a necessity to assess the changing needs ofthe study of nursing science. The method used in the study can be effectivelyused to analyze the conceptual structures in the nursing education andprofessional application processes and to understand the origins of thesetheories. Further research can help to structure the use of informationalscience-based research designs to understand the connections between theory,clinical practice, and the development of educational contents in nursingfaculties.
Cite this article as: Yayla, K. (2019).Understanding the diffusion of theoretical knowledge in nursing: A citationanalysis of Meleis’s Transition Theory. FNJN Florence Nightingale Journal ofNursing, 27(3), 275-283.