Abstract

This study analyzes how the expansion of citation relationships impacts the stability of main path analysis results in citation networks, focusing on Korean research literature about public libraries published in KCI-indexed journals from 2008 to 2023. By including both cited and citing documents in the dataset, the research quantitatively and qualitatively examines main path stability under forward, backward, and bi-directional citation expansion, utilizing the key-route search algorithm. The results show that the main path is relatively stable when only forward or backward expansion is applied (overlap ratio: 0.70-0.86), but significant changes occur when both expansion methods are used simultaneously (overlap ratio: 0.38-0.39), with more than half of the main path components replaced. The initial phase of the main path (2010-2015) remains consistent across all expansion conditions, whereas the latter period (2016-2023) introduces new topics—such as the metaverse and library services for people with disabilities—when forward and backward expansion are both applied. These findings offer empirical evidence about the effect of citation expansion on main path analysis, demonstrating that broader citation expansion improves the reliability of tracking recent research trajectories and strengthens methodological rigor in citation network studies.