Thematic evolution of smart learning environments, insights and directions from a 20-year research milestones: A bibliometric analysis

Smart learning environments (SLEs) have been developed to create an effective learning environment gradually and sustainably by applying technology. Given the growing dependence on technology daily, SLE will inevitably be incorporated into the teaching and learning process. Without transforming technology-enhanced learning environments into SLE, they are restricted to adding sophistication and lack pedagogical benefits, leading to wasteful educational investments. SLE research has grown over time, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, which fundamentally altered the "landscape" of technology use in education. This study aims to discover how the stages of SLE transform from time to time by applying two bibliometric analysis approaches: publication performance analysis and science mapping. The dataset was created by extracting bibliometric data from Scopus, including 427 articles, 162 publication sources (journals and proceeding), and 1080 authors from 2002 to 2022. Three kinds of SLE research subjects were identified by keyword synthesis: SLE features, technological innovation, and adaptive learning systems. Adaptive learning and personalized learning are consistently used interchangeably to demonstrate the significance of supporting the diversity of student and teacher conditions. Learning analytics, essential to employing big data technology for educational data mining, is a new theme being considered increasingly in the future to achieve adaptive and personalized learning. The 20-year SLE research milestone, broken down into five stages with various focuses on goals and served as the foundation for creating a maturity model of SLE.

Bibliometric and visualised analysis on non-invasive cerebellar stimulation from 1995 to 2021

Background

The non-invasive cerebellar stimulation (NICS) is a neural modulation technique, which shows the therapeutic and diagnostic potentials for rehabilitating brain functions in neurological or psychiatric diseases. There is a rapid growth in the clinical research related to NICS in recent years. Hence, we applied a bibliometric approach to analyze the current status, the hot spots, and the trends of NICS visually and systematically.

Methods

We searched the NICS publications from the Web of Science (Wos) between 1995 and 2021. Both VOSviewer (1.6.18) and Citespace (Version 6.1.2) software were used to generate the co-occurrence or co-cited network maps about the authors, institutions, countries, journals, and keywords.

Results

A total of 710 articles were identified in accordance with our inclusion criteria. The linear regression analysis shows a statistical increase in the number of publications per year on NICS research over time (p < 0.001). The Italy and University College London ranked the first in this field with 182 and 33 publications, respectively. Koch, Giacomo was the most prolific author (36 papers). The journal of Cerebellum, Brain stimulation and Clinical neurophysiology were the most three productive journals to publish NICS-related articles.

Conclusion

Our findings provide the useful information regarding to the global trends and frontiers in NICS field. Hot topic was focused on the interaction between the transcranial direct current stimulation and functional connectivity in the brain. It could guide the future research and clinical application of NICS.

A bibliometric analysis of cultural heritage research in the humanities: The Web of Science as a tool of knowledge management

Substantial research on the topic of cultural heritage has been conducted over the past two decades. At the same time, the overall output volume of journals and citation metrics have become important parameters in assessing and ranking researchers' performance. Even though the scholarly interest in cultural heritage has recently increased world-wide, a comprehensive analysis of the publication output volume and its correlation to the shift in the cultural heritage regime starting in 2003 is still lacking. The article aims to understand the role of Web of Science (WOS) as a tool of knowledge management in academia by drawing on the scholarly output volume, the patterns displayed by this volume, and the intellectual structure of cultural heritage research based on WOS-indexed journal articles. The data include 1843 journal articles published between 2003 and 2022 and indexed in the WOS Core Collection. The article draws on a bibliometric analysis by using WOS tools and employing VOSviewer software to map and visualize hidden patterns of research collaboration and avenues of knowledge progress. The cultural heritage research indexed in WOS was found to be Eurocentric, corresponding to the increasing funding provided by European national and supranational agencies for research funding. Although the indexed research has grown significantly, the bulk of studies on cultural heritage in WOS is concentrated in a reduced number of European institutions and countries, written by a small number of prolific authors, with relatively poor collaborative ties emerging across time between authors, institutions, and countries. The central themes reflect the development of digital technologies and increased participatory emphasis in cultural heritage care. This article brings new insights into the analysis of the cultural heritage research in correlation with the emergence of international heritage governance with new institutional actors, professional networks, and international agreements, which are all constitutive elements of scientific production. The article seeks to critically assess and discuss the results and the role of WOS as a tool of knowledge management in academia.

Health Tourism-Subject of Scientific Research: A Literature Review and Cluster Analysis

The purpose of this article is to identify main research areas in health tourism in scientific research. The data used in this analysis span from 2000 to 2022, was retrieved from the Web of Science database, and comprises a total of 1493 bibliometric records of publications. The paper includes both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis. The following four main research areas were identified based on the results: (1) patient satisfaction built upon trust; (2) health impacts of the destination (including the economic aspect, which plays a decisive role in choosing a tourism destination); (3) health behavior as a major part of human activity; and (4) traveling with a view to regain one's health. Note that the limitations of this study-which mostly affect the methodological part-need to be taken into consideration. This is the consequence of the selected publication database and of the search criteria used, such as the publication year or language.

Decarbonization strategy of businesses, stock return performance and investment styles: a systematic review

Purpose

This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the research focusing on the decarbonization strategy of businesses, stock return performance, and investment styles.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper utilizes bibliometric methods and content analysis to present a broad overview of the research on the association between decarbonization strategies in businesses and financial performance in the last few decades. The final dataset contains 272 records published between 2001 and early 2021, available in the Web of Science (WoS) database.

Findings

The authors find a relatively small number of publications before 2010 and the research focus increases only after 2016. There exists limited knowledge on the links between climate change strategies and firm performance till date. The top management journals have also failed to respond to the importance of decarbonization strategies in firms and their relationship with stock returns and investment styles. Furthermore, there is a limited indication of publications from ecology and the environmental sciences, in general, being included or cited by the business and management research studies, thus highlighting weak network linkages between the two fields.

Research limitations/implications

The study contributes to the literature on decarbonization strategies of businesses, and the strategies' relation with firm performance by consolidating the extant research and thus finding the research gaps and research areas that require further investigation.

Practical implications

For the industry professionals, this research provides a comprehensive repository of articles on incorporating decarbonization strategies in industry professionals' decisions on improving firm performance.

Originality/value

This paper examines the history and development of themes, related to firms' emission mitigation strategies, firm performance and investment styles, across the journal articles in the WoS database published from 2001 to early 2021. In addition, the authors highlight research directions and the need for research on sustainable strategies in businesses, stock return, and investment styles.

Global Trends and Hot-Spots in Research on Virtual Simulation in Nursing: A Bibliometric Analysis From 1999 to 2021

Background

Virtual simulation has been widely used in nursing education and nursing training. This study aims to characterize the publications in terms of countries, institutions, journals, authors, collaboration relationships, and analyze the trends of virtual simulation in nursing research.

Methods

Publications regarding virtual simulation in nursing were retrieved from Web of Science core collection. Microsoft Excel 2010, VOSviewer were used to characterize the contributions of the authors, journals, institutions, and countries. The trends, hot-spots and knowledge network were analyzed by Citespace and VOSviewer.

Results

We identified 677 papers between 1999 and 2021. The number of publications grew slowly until 2019, after that, it got a sharp increase in 2020 and 2021. The USA, Canada and Australia were three key contributors to this field. Centennial College and University of San Paulo, University of Ottawa and Ryerson University were top major institutions with a larger number of publications. Verkuyl M was the most productive and highest cited author. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, Nurse Education Today, Journal of Nursing Education were the three productive journals. The foundational themes of virtual simulation research in nursing are “virtual learning during COVID-19, clinical nursing care, education in nurse practitioners, education technology”.

Conclusion

Virtual simulation in nursing field has attracted considerable attention during COVID-19 pandemic. The research hotspot is gradually shifting from clinical nursing care to studies of nursing education using different virtual simulation technologies

A retrospective overview of Journal of Enterprise Information Management using bibliometric analysis

Purpose

Journal of Enterprise Information Management (JEIM) is a leading journal that publishes studies on applied information management relevant to industry personals, academicians and researchers. This study uses bibliometric tools to present a retrospective analysis of the journal's outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors applied bibliometric tools for analysing the impact, topic coverage, renowned authors with affiliation, citation, methodology and analysis of the JEIM corpus. Additionally, they used bibliographic coupling to develop a graphical visualisation and analyse the journal's thematic evolution.

Findings

With 16 yearly articles, JEIM contributed 656 research articles on various themes. The major themes that have come to define the JEIM over this time include information and systems, supply chain management, manufacturing resource planning, communication technologies and small- to medium-sized enterprises. Empirical methodology, quantitative techniques with descriptive analysis and regression methods are the most preferred. The article's primary research purpose shows the majority of theory-verifying articles. Co-authorship analysis reveals that the single-author trend is decreasing and the journal now has articles with international collaborations.

Originality/value

This study is the retrospective analysis of the JEIM, which is useful for aspiring contributors and the journal's editors.

Research evolution in banking performance: a bibliometric analysis

Banking performance has been regarded as a crucial factor of economic growth. Banks collect deposits from surplus and provide loans to the investors that contribute to the total economic growth. Recent development in the banking industry is channelling the funds and participating in economic activities directly. Hence, academic researchers are gradually showing their concern on banking performance and its effect on economic growth. Therefore, this study aims to explore the academic researchers on this particular academic research article. By extracting data from the web of Science online database, this study employed the bibliometrix package (biblioshiny) in the ‘R’ and VOSviewer tool to conduct performance and science mapping analyses. A total of 1308 research documents were analysed, and 36 documents were critically reviewed. The findings exhibited a recent growth in academic publications. Three major themes are mainly identified, efficiency measurement, corporate governance effect and impact on economic growth. Besides, the content analysis represents the most common analysis techniques used in the past studies, namely DEA and GMM. The findings of this study will be beneficial to both bank managers and owners to gauge a better understanding of banking performance. Meanwhile, academic researchers and students may find the findings and suggestions to study in the banking area.