Impact of published articles on trade liberalization from 1980-2015: a bibliometric study

Abstract

In this research, the viable impact of scholarly research on trade liberalisation by a bibliometric approach from 1980-2015 is examined. The paper analysed 886 academic articles extracted from the ISI Web of Science Core Collection database. Trade liberalisation research is notably interdisciplinary, with articles principally in journals for economics, international relations, and planning development. This study found that the field became evidently viable with more than ten articles per year from 1990 – 2015. The proportion of articles with at least one citation from 1980 – 2015 is 56.43%. The top 100 articles have a minimum of 25 citations. Given this, this study created a citation matrix trend to determine two decade’s total citation per year. The data are statistically analysed. Furthermore, the study produced a cloud map showing the Web of Science research categories. Based on the results of this study, insight into citation forecast for future research to advance knowledge on trade liberalisation is provided.

Keywords: Article word count, citation matrix, publication trends, trade liberalisation, Web of Science