A Bibliometric Analysis of the Studies on Self-Healing Concrete Published between 1974 and 2021

Abstract

Research on self-healing concrete has flourished in recent years. This paper aims to comprehensively understand the current research situation and future development directions of self-healing concrete. It summarizes and analyzes the publications on self-healing concrete from 1974 to 2021 to reveal the current key research topics and development trends and identifies the most productive research constitutes. The bibliometric analysis software Biblioshiny was used to analyze 1433 documents written by 2961 authors and published in 450 sources retrieved from Scopus. The analysis included an overview of the leading information and an analysis of the authors, countries, universities/institution, publications, and keywords. Results obtained from the author analysis suggest that tracking the work of the most productive authors is essential, as it will provide researchers with valuable information, such as possible leads and ideas for future research work and collaboration opportunities. Countries, universities/institutes, and publications analysis revealed that more collaboration leads to more exposure and a higher citation rate, significantly promoting self-healing research development. A keywords analysis highlighted the focus areas in self-healing concrete and presented potential gaps in the literature. The findings of this study will provide scholars with a comprehensive understanding of the current research work in the field of self-healing concrete and its future directions. Results can also benefit stakeholders in making effective decisions to direct the development of the self-healing industry.