Scientometric Analysis of the Global Scientific Literature on Circularity Indicators in the Construction and Built Environment Sector

Abstract

The circular-economy-related research has exponentially increased in recent years. The literature shows that circularity indicators represent a timely topic that requires an in-depth analysis. However, the trends and gaps in the literature in the area of the circular economy have not need analysed in depth. This study uses a scientometric analysis as the research methodology to examine the current literature on circularity and circular economic indicators. The publications were extracted from the Web of Science and were published until the end of the third quarter of 2022. The scientometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer software to map the relationships between the 1117 articles selected on the topic. The findings revealed that the most productive author and university were Jorge de Brito and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The overlay visualisation of the keywords identified a notable shift in research themes from dynamics, frameworks, models, and design in previous years to economy, barriers, and strategies in the current research context. The overlay visualisation of the keywords identified trending research hotspots within the current research context. This study is the first holistic and global overview of circularity and circular economic indicators in the construction context and identifies a critical need for further research to understand circularity and circular economic indicators under co-occurrence analysis conditions. This study offers academics, policymakers, and other circularity activists a guide for future research and valuable insight into circularity and circularity indicator themes.

A scientometric analysis of global scientific literature on learning resources in higher education

“…Science mapping visually represents the relationships between disciplines, fields, specialities, and individual articles or authors [ 44 ]; Small, 1999). A scientometric analysis has now evolved into an extensive bibliometric analysis where the primary goal is to monitor and identify relationships in scientific topics and define study areas to evaluate their cognitive structure and evolution [ 45 , 46 ]; Noyons, Moed, & van Raan, 1999). Thus, scientometric analysis is used within the study to quantify and analyse the potential trends of publications indexed accurately.…”

“…co-occurrence of keywords. The network maps developed could be interpreted as knowledge maps in understanding the research impact of HE learning resources as it illustrates the most productive authors, influential institutions, significant countries and research trends in HE learning resources [ 45 , 46 ]. All network maps were developed by selecting an appropriate threshold and adjusting the visualisation scale and size variation that provides the clearest network map.…”

Implementing Circular Economy throughout the Construction Project Life Cycle: A Review on Potential Practices and Relationships

“…The co-authorship analysis recognised scientific collaborations in terms of the most productive and influential authors, institutions/organisations, and countries [49]. The selected 29 articles in this study underwent a co-authorship analysis to figure out the most influential countries in the research area.…”