Evolution of discipline knowledge network in China - Empirical data from 1981 to 2010

The evolution process of discipline knowledge network of China is studied based on the citation data of important academic journals from 1981-2010. The data include three parts, which are 1981-1990, 1991-2000 and 2001-2010. Comparative analysis results show that the network is a small but high connected network. It has a homogeneous structure and heterogeneous weight distribution. In the past 30 years, its connection increased significantly but has little change in its homogeneous structure and heterogeneous weight distribution. Modeling analysis shows that its special features result from the evolution rules of fixed number of nodes, preference attachment and preference weight growth of important nodes.