Abstract: In order to better understand the latest application of information research method, the use feature and evolution path of research method in academic papers on intelligence in the past three years were analyzed. 4,256 academic papers from 9 CSSCI core journals in the field of Library & Information from 2016 to 2018 were selected to be the complete dataset and highly-cited dataset via extracting the titles and abstracts. By way of the matrix diagram method, the specific research methods and research topics were first classified to method categories and application fields; the two parameters were then correlated by the word frequency of specific research methods. The two datasets were later analyzed from the dimentions of method category and application field. The conclusion are as follows: literature analysis plays an important role in the management of think tank nowadays; method combination is the distinctive feature of method utilization in the information science; highly-cited dataset tends to use the traditional and classical methods, such as induction, investigation and compter modeling; there are three evolution paths for the emergence of emergencing methods.

Key words: Information research, Method category, Application field, Use feature, Evolution path