SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE ON BLACK HOLES

Abstract

The study presents a quantitative assessment of research literature on black holes using scientometric methods. A total of 37,776 publications were retrieved from the Web of Science indexing database over a decade, from 2012 to 2021. Scientometric analysis entails the quantitative examination of research publications. The study investigates various scientometric analysis techniques, including document types, year-wise growth of literature on black holes, Performance Efficiency Index (PEI), Relative Citation Impact (RCI), Relative Growth Rate (RGR), doubling time (Dt), most prolific authors, geographical distribution, and keyword occurrences. The maximum number of document types in the form of research articles was 36,018 (95.347%). The maximum number of papers (5,153) was published in 2021. The PEI and RCI decreased, while the Relative Growth Rate (RGR) declined, and the Doubling Time (Dt) increased during the study period. The USA is the highest contributor globally in black hole research publications. Fabian, A. C., is the most prolific author in the black holes research field in the study period. The most occurring keyword is ‘Black Holes’ from the study period. MS Excel was used to evaluate the gathered data, and VOSviewer software was used for data visualization purposes.