Bibliometric Analysis of Construction Education Research from 1982 to 2017

Abstract

Research into construction education (CE) has garnered increasing attention over the last few decades and a great number of CE studies have been published. However, few studies have mapped the global geography and perspective of that research. This paper presents the first bibliometric analysis of CE studies published between 1982 and 2017 in order to chart the academic development and identify of various research directions within the field. Focusing on development trends, knowledge body structure, major journals, and collaboration networks and applying quantitative evaluation results allowed instructive findings and implications concerning the possible deficiencies in CE research to be derived. The analysis of keyword trends indicates that new concepts like building information modeling and sustainability have recently become hot topics in CE research. The most influential articles, journals, authors, and countries/regions were also identified. The findings also imply that current CE research shows a bias toward technology utilization in education and the existence of considerable isolation between formed groups, such as collaboration networks. This study contributes to CE literature by providing useful information of its status quo and suggesting potential directions for future CE research.