Worldwide trends on encapsulation of phase change materials: A bibliometric analysis (1990-2015)

Context: Science is not static! In light of this basic approach, it can be expressed clearly that bibliometric methods or analysis has become an indispensable guide to be draw scientific and technological roadmaps in their research areas for researchers especially in recent years. The present study is planned as the first step of the study which will be conducted by authors on nano-encapsulation of phase change materials. Objective: This study combines a traditional literature review with data mining procedures by using bibliometric approach to identify the evolution of the knowledge structure related to encapsulation of phase change materials. Papers published from 1990 to 2015 in all journals indexed by the Scopus database were considered. Method: Bibliometric methods and knowledge visualization technologies were employed to investigate publication activities based on the following indicators: year of publication, document type, language, country, institution, author, journal, keyword, number of citations. Results: As a result of bibliometric analysis; 34,626 papers were determined with the keyword phase change material and 1034 papers with the keyword encapsulation. The number of publications on encapsulation of phase change materials have increased significantly after 2000. China, the United States and India are the most productive countries, while Tsinghua University and South China University of Technology from China are the most important institutions related to encapsulation. Applied Energy (39) is the most productive journal followed by Energy Conversation and Management (31). Conclusion: This is the first bibliometric analysis study on encapsulation of phase change materials. The results of this research support the idea that this type of bibliometric analysis would be a fruitful area as a first step for further works, not only associated with phase change materials. Further investigations into research fields are strongly recommended. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.