Title: A systematic bibliometric analysis of the analytic hierarchy process from 1980 to 2020

Authors: Hassan Ali

Addresses: School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072, China

Abstract: The application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique for addressing different practical multi-criteria decision-making issues has grown in recent years. This study presents the bibliometric analysis of the AHP method from 1980 to 2020. To perform this bibliometric analysis, 2,373 papers were retrieved from the Web of Science core collection database. The general analysis is conducted using bibliometric indicators at the levels of countries/ regions, institutions, authors and source titles, including publication numbers, citations, and H-index. Cooperation networks between countries/regions, institutions and authors are illustrated with the help of the VOSviewer bibliometric tool. Furthermore, the co-occurrence analysis of significant keywords is performed to highlight the hot topics regarding the AHP. To better demonstrate the similarity metrics between different publications, the bibliographic coupling analysis is performed with the help of the VOSviewer. This article examines the AHP method's hot issues and development patterns, serving as a valuable resource for future research.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process; AHP; bibliometric analysis; cooperation networks; co-occurrence analysis; bibliographic coupling analysis; multi-criteria decision-making; MCDM; prolific countries; prolific authors; prolific institutions; prolific source titles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBBM.2022.125988

International Journal of Bibliometrics in Business and Management, 2022 Vol.2 No.2, pp.148 - 169

Received: 30 Jan 2022
Received in revised form: 04 Apr 2022
Accepted: 21 May 2022
Published online: 05 Oct 2022 *

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