Bibliometric analysis for reviewing published studies in the built environment

Literature review is generally one of the key steps in conducting a scientific research. The overwhelming amount of literature may require significant effort to sort out, screen, and analyse before generating useful information and achieving research objectives in any scholarly work within a given domain. As the text-mining-featured analysis tools (e.g., VosViewer) become available for visualizing and analysing secondary data sources (e.g., literature), the bibliometric analysis is becoming one of the widely adopted methods in reviewing literature, especially for a large amount of secondary sources. In this chapter, bibliometric analysis is firstly defined. The rationale for adopting them when conducting literature review is described. The existing software tools for conducting the text-mining-based analysis (e.g., VosViewer, Gephi, etc.) are introduced. Using two cases in the subject of built environment, the detailed workflow of conducting the science mapping approach involving bibliometric analysis is also described. The network analysis using one of the bibliometric analysis tools (i.e., VosViewer) is showcased. Finally, the general guidance of conducting a bibliometric analysis is summarised, with recommendations provided and common mistakes described.