RFID Applications in Libraries: A Scientometric Assessment of Global Publications Output during 1998-2019

Abstract

The paper provides quantitative and qualitative assessment of research on “RFID Applications in Libraries” based on global publications output (273 publications), as covered in Scopus database covering the 22-year period 1988-2019. The subject “RFID Applications in Libraries” registered annual average growth of 27.15% and eleven years cumulative growth of 195.65%. It averaged to 8.1 citations per paper and bulk of global output (73.99%) and the global citations (59.84%) in the field emanates from top 10 countries. The paper further provides an insight into qualitative performance of research on “RFID Applications in Libraries” in terms of relative citation index, citations per paper, highly cited papers, besides analyzing the top 20 global organizations and authors in the field, the distribution of publications by broad subjects, the identification of the most significance keywords, the most productive journals and the analysis of higher-cited papers in the field. The study found that Kyush University, Japan, University of Malaya and University of Technology Kingston, Jamaica (with 5 papers each) were the most productive organizations and Swansea University, U.K. (24.0 and 2.98), City University of Hong Kong (20.75 and 2.57), Kyush University, Japan (19.80 and 2.46) were the most significant organizations in terms of citation per paper and relative citation index. Similarly, K. Fujisaki (6 papers), P. Golding and V. Tennant (with 5 papers each) were the most productive authors and C. Kern (20.0 and 2.48), S.C. Yu (19.25 and 2.39), N. Dindar (14.67 and 1.82) were leading authors in terms of citation per paper and relative citation index. Electronic Library (with 8 papers), Library Philosophy and Practice (5 papers) and Library & Archival Security (4 papers) were the leading journals contributing to the field.