Paper presented at The 11th International Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI 2007). Madrid, Spain.We analyze thematic trends and challenging issues in conceptual modeling based on the metadata of 943
research papers published in a series of conferences on conceptual modeling (known as the ER conferences)
between 1979 and 2005. We specifically address 1) all-time prominent challenges in conceptual modeling, 2)
current challenges and emerging trends, and 3) the structure and dynamics of the conceptual modeling
community. We utilize CiteSpace, a progressive domain visualization tool, to identify and visualize the
movement of research fronts and intellectual bases, persistent clusters of papers, critical paths connecting these
clusters, and the evolution of co-authorship networks as well as citation networks. The work contributes an indepth
analysis of a major forum of conceptual modeling and a practical method that one can use as frequently as
needed to keep abreast of the state of the art of conceptual modeling
