Global research on library service quality: a bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the publishing and citation trends on library service quality (LSQ) in the past five decades (1972–2020). Additionally, this bibliometric study investigates the top authors, countries, organizations, journals, nature of collaboration, highly cited articles and LSQ sub-areas.

Design/methodology/approach

Bibliometric analysis has been used to extract data from the Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases. A comprehensive search strategy was devised to extract relevant data from both data sources. Finally, 341 Scopus and 212 WOS records were selected. Data analysis has been performed using VOS viewer software, Biblioshiny, Cite Space and Excel.

Findings

It was found that a total of 443 items were published in Scopus (n = 341) and WOS (n = 212) during this period. The largest number of studies were published in the year 2019 (n = 29), and the USA was found to be the most productive country, with the most productive organizations, authors and author collaborations. The Texas A&M University in Texas, USA, had the top three most productive authors (Cook C, Thompson B and Heath F) and was the most productive organization. The Performance Measurement and Metrics Journal is on the top of the list. The single author was the prevailing authorship pattern, followed by the two-authors pattern. The most collaborating countries were identified as the UK, Japan, Spain and Bangladesh. The keyword analysis informed that the published literature on LSQ mainly concentrated on academic libraries, Therefore, there is a need further to examine other types of libraries including public, national, special libraries.

Originality/value

To the best of the knowledge, this seems to be the first comprehensive bibliometric study that combined productivity and citations, citation impact to present a holistic picture of the LSQ literature.

Citation

Ashiq, M., Ur Rehman, S., Muneeb, D. and Ahmad, S. (2022), "Global research on library service quality: a bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. 71 No. 4/5, pp. 253-273. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-02-2021-0026