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This study analyses the thematic and conceptual structure of the Spanish scientific production published in Emerging Sources Citation Index (Web of Science) journals. In this way, the aim is to identify the closest links between concepts and terms based on the co-occurrence of keywords used by the authors of the papers analysed, and also to point out the theoretical foundations that exist in the discipline through the co-citation relationships of articles in the bibliography of the documents in the sample. Finally, these results were compared with those obtained from the analysis of Spanish scientific production in Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). To achieve these objectives, a network analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords and co-citation of references in articles published in Communication journals between 2015 and 2021 in ESCI (N = 3,559) and SSCI (N = 1,738) with at least one author linked to a Spanish institution was carried out. The results point to similar structural cohesion values and to a thematic and methodological similarity between both sets observed. There is a marked tendency towards quantitative studies on new technologies. While in SSCI there is an almost absolute dominance of Journalism studies, in ESCI there is a greater diversity of other disciplines such as Audiovisual Communication or Advertising. However, the intellectual structure of the production in SSCI reflects a more specialised character than in ESCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of Communication in Spain is analyzed, contextualizing Spanish output at a global and local level between the years 2000 and 2020. Based on a descriptive bibliometric analysis of the Communication category of the Social Sciences Citation Index database, part of Web of Science, the impact of the main countries is identified. The weight of the output in the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) database between 2015 and 2020 is also studied. An analysis of the output by universities in Spain for the period 2010–2020 is also carried out, comparing it with the impact and the works in the first quartile. The results reveal that Spain has been the fourth country in terms of output in Communication in the last decade and that Austria stands out as the country whose works have the greatest impact. It is also observed that 67% of Spain’s works in Communication are published in journals that are indexed in ESCI. The impact of Spanish universities is very close to the world average. The Universitat Pompeu Fabra stands out, publishing the most articles and, furthermore, being the Spanish university with most papers in the first quartile of the JCR in Communication between 2010 and 2020. The study of the Shanghai Ranking by area includes eight Spanish universities, only three of which have output in Communication that comes mainly from professors in this area. The role of the Spanish journals Comunicar and Profesional de la información is notable, as they publish a large fraction of the output by Spanish universities in the Communication field. Finally, this paper presents the challenges of research in Communication, as well as those related to its bibliometric analysis, and a reflection on the problems that affect scientific production and research in this subject area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]