A Scientometric Assessment of Global Publications in E Learning Research during 2003 to 18

Abstract

The paper provides quantitative and qualitative assessment of global publications output in the domain of e-learning research (1809 publications). The data was sourced from Scopus database during 2003-18. The study finds that global e-learning research registered 18.92 per cent annual average growth, averaged 6.90 citations per paper in a 16-year window. The distribution of global research in the subject is highly skewed as 10 out of 94 participating countries account for 62.58 per cent global publications share. A total of 449 authors from 387 organisations contributed to global e-learning research. The top 15 organisations collectively contributed 14.81 per cent global publication share and 24.52 per cent global citation share respectively. The top 15 authors contributed 7.89 per cent global publication share and and 33.45 per cent global citation share respectively during the period. Carnegie Mellon University, USA (49 papers) is the most productive organisations in the world, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan (23.29 and 3.37) is the most cited organisation. M. Vivou (24 papers) is most prolific author in the world and C.M. Chen (103.0 and 14.93) the most cited author in the subject. Computers and Education and Computers in Human Behavior (20 papers) were the leading journals publishing on this theme.