Output, collaboration and impact of e-learning research: Bibliometric analysis and visualizations at the country and institutional level (scopus 2003-2016)

Abstract

Bibliometric indicators of production and impact of e-learning research are analyzed to know the contribution of countries and institutions in the scientific development of this subject and to strengthen its characterization as knowledge domain. We extracted bibliometric indicators from 39,244 documents indexed in Scopus and SCImago Institutional Rankings, and generated maps of production and collaboration networks and graphics about the impact of e-learning research in countries and institutions. The results of this combined analysis showed that at country level the United States produce most of the works and generated the greatest international collaboration. At institutional level, the University of Hong Kong is the most productive and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is the one with the greatest collaboration. In addition,the analysis showed that Taiwan ranks first in productivity and impact, which is why we linked these results to a brief analysis of its national policies. This study presents a new method to analyze both emerging and established knowledge domains.