Fifteen years of YouTube scholarly research: knowledge structure, collaborative networks, and trending topics

Abstract

Since its inception, YouTube has been a source of entertainment and education. Everyday millions of videos are uploaded to this platform. Researchers have been using YouTube as a source of information in their research. However, there is a lack of bibliometric reports on research carried out on this platform and the pattern in the published works. This study aims at providing a bibliometric analysis on YouTube as a source of information to fill this gap. Specifically, this paper analyzes 1781 articles collected from the Scopus database spanning fifteen years. The analysis revealed that 2006-2007 were initial stage in YouTube research followed by 2008 -2017 which is the decade of rapid growth in YouTube research. The 2017 -2021 is considered the stage of consolidation and stabilization of this research topic. We also discovered that most relevant papers were published in small number of journals such as New Media and Society, Convergence, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Computers in Human Behaviour and the Physics Teacher, which proves the Bradford’s law. USA, Turkey, and UK are the countries with the highest number of publications. We also present network analysis between countries, sources, and authors. Analyzing the keywords resulted in finding the trend in research such as “video sharing” (2010-2018), “web -based learning” (2012-2014), and “COVID -19” (2020 onward). Finally, we used Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) to find the conceptual clusters of research on YouTube. The first cluster is related to user -generated content. The second cluster is about health and medical issues, and the final cluster is on the topic of information quality.

Knowledge mapping and research trends of stem cell in wound healing: A bibliometric analysis

“…MCA created two‐dimensional diagrams by simplifying multidimensional data into low‐dimensional forms and measuring keyword similarity using plane distance. When a keyword is close to the center, it indicates that the keyword is having more attention, and if it is further away from the center, it indicates less interest in the subject 31 . The best dimension reduction in MCA's first dimension and second dimension was shown in Figure 10A.…”

“…When a keyword is close to the center, it indicates that the keyword is having more attention, and if it is further away from the center, it indicates less interest in the subject. 31 The best dimension reduction in MCA's first dimension and second dimension was shown in Figure 10A . Endothelial, growth factor, regeneration, stem cells, differentiation were terms with closer distance from central dots, which were all associated with the process by which stem cells functioned.…”

Reliability and usefulness of YouTube as a source of informative media for arthroscopic tennis elbow surgery: A systematic review of the published videos

“…Most of the content on YouTube is never peer-reviewed and is published quickly; hence the quality of the content remains debatable always. [ 16 ] One of the earliest studies by Keelan et al [ 17 ] on the available YouTube videos on immunisation states poor quality information on various medical conditions. Several other studies have also previously highlighted the YouTube video on the arthroscopic anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction,[ 18 ] rotator cuff surgeries,[ 9 ] Bankart repair,[ 19 ] lumbar fusion surgeries,[ 20 ] knee arthroplasty,[ 21 ] and gastric surgeries[ 22 ] are of poor quality.…”