Islamic sustainable finance: a systematic bibliometric review (1997–2025) Free

The global financial crisis and the hardships it imposed on many people have raised many questions about the stability and sustainability of the conventional financial system. This situation highlights the importance of Islamic finance, an alternative financing system, in promoting sustainable development objectives. Many countries have tried to create a conducive ecosystem for Islamic sustainable finance (ISF). Malaysia, for example, has created frameworks and guidelines for the Islamic finance ecosystem and encouraged investors to participate in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives (Aziz and Zhang, 2019). Saudi Arabia responded to sustainability efforts by being at the forefront of the global adoption of ESG sukuk (Halawi, 2022). Intergovernmental organisations and banks, such as the United Nations (UN) and the Islamic Development Bank, also significantly accelerate the use of Islamic finance to support sustainable development. Several initiatives have been undertaken, including efforts to address poverty in rural areas (Saldinger, 2021).

On a global scale, Islamic finance investment is also growing significantly, particularly under sustainable-themed investing, also known as Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI). Sustainability-related considerations gather momentum from various parties, including policymakers, companies, and investors. Companies have adopted multiple strategies to ensure their products and services contribute to building a more sustainable future. For example, investment companies ensure that their assets under management meet ESG criteria, which include emission reduction and minimising harmful pollutants and chemicals.

The Islamic financial sector also plays a significant role in contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to Ahmed et al. (2015), financial stability, financial inclusion, vulnerability reduction, social and environmental initiatives, and infrastructure financing are among the five key areas that require the cooperation of Islamic finance. A conducive ecosystem for sustainable Islamic finance is necessary, and effective coordination among the public, private, and third sectors is essential. However, the activities remained largely muted despite ISF's considerable growth and importance in achieving many of the most pressing development goals aligned with the SDGs. In addition, a lack of standardisation has been recognised in many countries (ISFI, 2022).

Furthermore, it has been noted that knowledge gaps persist in the relationship between ISF and SDGs (Zarrouk, 2015). The absence of literature makes it worthwhile to investigate the evolution of the literature and the research agenda and direction in this area. Hence, this study aims to examine the evolution of the literature on ISF and answer the research objectives below. Specifically, this paper seeks to (1) identify the most productive authors, the keywords, the citations, and the network in ISF, (2) analyse the content of the most cited articles in ISF, and (3) predict future research directions.

This paper is organised as follows. The next section presents a literature review that briefly discusses the concept of ISF and its relationship to the SDGs. The methodology, which outlines the research approach, study design, and data selection strategy, is presented in the third section. The fourth section elaborates on the findings, categorised into three themes: authorship, keyword, citation, and network analysis. The fifth section contains the content analysis. The conclusion, future research agenda and study limitations are presented in the sixth section.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature gave a broader definition of sustainable development as “improving the quality of life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems” (Qadir and Zaman, 2018). The UN World Commission defines sustainable development as “the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Qadir and Zaman, 2018).

Islam views sustainability from five aspects: life, faith, mind, property, and family (Satyakti, 2023). Muslims are obligated by their faith to ensure the sustainability of these five goals. From an Islamic perspective, sustainable development is founded on the concept that humans have a responsibility to care for nature, and it primarily depends on preserving the benefits for all spheres, including the animal kingdom and the environment, which aligns with Maqasid Al-Sharia (Ahmadi, 2016). Because preserving life is an explicit goal of Islamic law, only those development efforts are Islamically permissible and do not jeopardise future generations’ ability to meet their needs (Qadir and Zaman, 2018). Therefore, Islamic development is endogenously sustainable. Islamic traditions contribute to a sustainable community, as the SDGs and Islamic principles are compatible. Islamic sustainable development differs from conventional sustainable efforts in various ways. First, the role of human beings and vice versa. Second, the adoption of simple lifestyles (Zuhd), which involve living lightly on earth; and third, the distinctive Islamic worldview, which offers a unique perspective on what constitutes happiness, progress, success, scarcity, and a good life. In addition, Islamic tradition offers the state useful tools and interventions as well as incentives for people that can aid in the implementation of the ideals of sustainable development. The failure of market-based incentives to achieve sustainable development objectives (Qadir and Zaman, 2018) makes these instruments, interventions, and incentives all the more intriguing.

In terms of Islamic finance sustainability, the Islamic banking industry, for instance, employs two primary models in its banking operations: the institutional and welfare methods. According to Mansour et al., 2015), the institutional approach increases the bank’s stakeholders’ wealth. The well-being approach aims to achieve Maqasid Al-Sharia by enhancing people's overall well-being. Therefore, sustainability is vital to Islamic banking and is seen as a tool for institutional and economic actors to achieve the SDGs developed by the UN (OECD, 2020).

The SDGs are a set of 17 global objectives initiated by the UN, covering a broad range of sustainable development issues, including reducing poverty and hunger, improving health and education, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests (Securities Commission Malaysia, 2019). The SDGs are designed to be a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”. It acknowledges and rectifies the critical social, economic, and environmental issues confronting society. Figure 1 shows the goals for sustainable development.

Islamic finance is viewed as a tool for institutional and economic actors seeking to achieve the SDGs (OECD, 2020). Islamic finance shares principles similar to those of sustainable finance, which aim for financial stability and economic growth, poverty alleviation and wealth distribution, financial and social inclusion, and environmental preservation (Securities Commission Malaysia, 2019). Islamic finance can significantly aid in achieving the SDGs due to its emphasis on risk sharing, asset-backed financing, and its social and ethical ethos. The Islamic financial sector has recently made some progress in promoting sustainable infrastructure. For example, Malaysia, through Khazanah SRI sukuk, issued two impact bonds to raise education standards in the country. Pakistan, through an energy company, received a substantial amount of financing from an Islamic banking syndication for a project aimed at reducing carbon emissions (Ahmed, 2010). These two initiatives align with the SDGs' aims to reduce poverty and improve education.

The Islamic community has made significant contributions to sustainable development initiatives. Numerous researchers have examined the environmental crisis from an Islamic perspective and outlined various Islamic laws and regulations on environmental protection (Al-Jayyousi, 2016; Rkiouak, 2015; Kamali, 2016; Ansari, 1994; Nouh, 2012). The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has outlined a five-point strategy related to sustainable development, which includes justice, active participation, a just world trade system, strengthening the international community's development practices/policies, and educating young people about their moral, religious, and environmental obligations.

This study used a bibliometric method to obtain quantitative results on ISF literature. Bibliometric analysis combined with content analysis is becoming increasingly popular among researchers (Koskinen et al., 2008). To ensure reliability and validity, descriptive, integrative, systematic, or meta-analytical reviews are combined with bibliometric reviews to present the quantitative aspect of the literature (Martínez-Climent et al., 2018). Nevertheless, due to its merit, bibliometric analysis is an emerging method with rare Islamic financial applications (Alshater et al., 2020). The method also differs from comparable verification techniques in its key, in-depth, and insightful aspect of the phenomenon of interest.

This study used a three-step methodological process, as outlined in Figure 2. The method was developed initially by Paltrinieri et al. (2023) and modified for the present study. In the first stage, recognised databases are searched for relevant publications for the meta-literature search. The second stage involves identifying relevant literature from the selected database, and the third step aims to analyse the chosen literature through a bibliometric review.

The data for the bibliometric review were collected from the Scopus database, a well-known database owned by Elsevier. The Scopus database has been utilised in several previous studies, including those in bibliometric analysis-based papers (Baker et al., 2020; Goodell et al., 2023). Scopus was chosen for several reasons. First, this is the largest multidisciplinary peer-reviewed database. Second, it is the most reputable financial literature reporting database. Third, many previous researchers in Islamic Finance have used the Scopus database to conduct bibliometric reviews in the Islamic finance discipline (Kabir et al., 2025). Table 1 presents statistics on the total number of articles accumulated and collected from the Scopus database, based on selected and chosen keywords within the scope of sustainability in Islamic finance literature.

Researcher intervention is often necessary to remove manuscripts from consideration if they do not align with the study's objectives. Scopus databases were accessed, and different keywords were used. Specifically, three steps were followed to identify the right manuscripts that were selected. First, the authors ensure that the titles of the manuscript are relevant and accurate. Second, keyword screening was conducted in the titles of all the manuscripts. Multiple keywords were used, considering the topic's nature (refer to Table 2). Third, the content of the manuscripts was reviewed. These steps, in addition to ensuring that the selected manuscripts are relevant, are also conducted to ensure that the data’s validity and reliability are met. The documents were restricted to articles, conference papers, review papers and book chapters. The model and the methodology used are among the checklists in content checking. As a result, a total of 512 documents were found published between 1997 and 2025. One of the articles was written in Arabic and removed from the analysis. The documents were then filtered and checked for relevance, and the final dataset contained 306, which were used in further analysis. The details of the selection process are illustrated in Figure 3.

This study uses three bibliometric analysis tools: RStudio, VOSviewer and Excel. RStudio is commonly used to generate bibliographic data for the record. VOSviewer was used to perform network and content analysis. VOSviewer allows users to create and visualise bibliometric networks (Van Eck and Waltman, 2013). Bibliometric tools are used to extract data about documents, authors, sources, and subjects. Microsoft Excel was used to create high-quality charts.

Table 3 provides a general overview of the data collected, which covers publications from 1997 to 2025, with a total of 306 documents sourced from 152 journals and books. The annual growth rate of publications is 7.71%, and the average age of the documents is 3.39 years. On average, each document received 9.464 citations, and 14,651 references were cited. Regarding content, there are 173 Keywords Plus and 829 author-provided keywords. The study involved 728 authors, with 48 single-authored documents. There were 53 single-authored works, and the average number of co-authors per document is 2.9.

Figure 4 shows the year-wise distribution of publications. The Number of Publications (NP) in ISF has been increasing since 1997, with the highest NP in 2024, exceeding 100 papers.

Figure 5 presents the most influential authors in ISF. The most influential author is Hassan, who has published twelve articles, followed by Haron and Hassan, who have published ten and nine articles, respectively. Authors such as Kassim, Engku Ali, and Rabbani have published fewer than eight articles. This finding reveals several reasons. First, higher publication counts reflect a dedicated focus on ISF topics, enabling authors like Hassan to consistently produce more articles. Second, most of the authors, such as Haron and Engku Ali, are affiliated with a university in Malaysia, which is renowned for its excellent research support and infrastructure, particularly in Islamic finance.

Figure 6 illustrates the productivity of the top authors. Rabbani and Hassan's contributions in terms of article publications were higher in 2020 and 2021. Jan and Marimuthu had the highest NP in 2019. The surge in publications by Rabbani and Hassan in 2020–2021 was a response to growing interest in specific ISF topics, such as sustainability and pandemic-related financial resilience. For example, they have published an article on COVID and the role of fintech. At the same time, Jan and Marimuthu focus on topics in ISF such as corporate governance or risk-sharing frameworks.

The top 10 most cited authors worldwide were also investigated. They were accessed based on the number of citations they received. Based on Figure 7, Hassan has the highest number of citations, with 200, followed by Lai and Jan with 180. Other authors, such as Karim and Oseni, have fewer than 150 citations. The results imply the influence of the authors and their contribution to knowledge development in the ISF domain.

This study also assessed the number of articles by affiliation. The top ten universities were ranked and represented in Table 4. The highest affiliation of articles is with the International Islamic University Malaysia, with 27 articles, followed by the Universiti Teknologi Petronas with 16 articles. Universiti Teknologi Mara and Universiti Utara Malaysia were ranked third and fourth, respectively, with a total of 14 publications. Overall, Malaysian universities dominate publication and research in the ISF domain. These supportive national policies and frameworks by the Malaysian government contribute to the increasing volume of publications by Malaysian universities. Furthermore, as ISF is gaining global attention, Malaysian scholars are capitalising on this momentum to contribute to the international discourse and publish in high-impact journals.

The countries’ contributions were also assessed. Figure 8 shows that Malaysia has the highest number of published articles on ISF. Based on the Figure, 58 publications were from Malaysia, followed by Indonesia, Pakistan, and Qatar. The top four countries were Muslim-denominated countries. However, it is interesting that non-Muslim-denominated countries, such as Australia, Italy, and the United Kingdom, also contribute to publishing ISF, indicating a more significant interest in this topic. This finding is attributed to several factors. First, government initiatives, such as the UK sukuk issuance and green finance strategy, encourage research and innovation in ISF. Second, the promotion of the sustainable agenda in product offerings, including those from non-Muslim countries, attracts institutional investors and encourages publications in this field.

Figure 9 presents the country comparison of total and average citations. Malaysia has the highest number of citations, with a total of 740. High citations for authors from Malaysia imply that their work has had a significant influence in this field. This finding reflects Malaysia as a global leader in Islamic finance research. The strong collaboration between academia, policymakers, and industry players also contributes to these findings, creating a rich knowledge ecosystem that enhances citation impact.

Table 5 illustrates the top ISF sources, representing the leading journal. Based on the table, the Islamic Green Finance: A Research Companion journal has published 16 articles, followed by the Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research with 12 articles and ISRA International Journal of Islamic Finance and Sustainability with 11 articles. This finding revealed that most of the researchers prefer to publish their papers in specialised journals on Islamic finance. This finding helps researchers identify reliable and peer-reviewed sources relevant to ISF.

The yearly growth trend of the top five leading journals is shown in Figure 10. The trend began in 2014, with the ISRA International Journal of Islamic Finance leading the publications, followed by Sustainability in 2017 and the Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research in 2018. Observing the publication trends of these journals gave insight into the journals' growth and maturity in ISF.

Figure 11 illustrates the analysis of the keywords in ISF literature. Identifying the keyword is essential, as it reveals the main topics and concepts most frequently studied in ISF, helping researchers understand what the field is actually focused on. Based on the figure, Islamic finance, investments, banking, and sustainability are the most trending keywords, reflecting the topics that are currently popular, emerging and research focus in this field. Hence, researchers interested in exploring ISF further may consider examining these emerging keywords from the perspective of ISF.

Figure 12 illustrates the growth of the keyword over the years. The increase in frequency of the keywords' growth reflects the rising interest in the area. In this paper, it was found that SDGs and sustainability are among the keywords frequently used in ISF and are increasing over time, reflecting that these keywords are gaining relevance and helping academics and practitioners stay current with emerging topics. It reflects that ISF research is starting to align with the SDGs and international sustainability frameworks, hence increasing policy and industry interest in the area.

The organised form of the keywords on ISF is represented in the thematic map in Figure 13, which exhibits the general trends and trending keywords in the form of themes. The keywords are extracted from the publications provided by the authors. The thematic theme illustrates the keywords in terms of development degree, i.e. density and relevance, which is equivalent to centrality. The themes are classified into niche, emerging, basic, and motor themes. Based on the figure, the identified niche themes include entrepreneurship, risk sharing, and sustainable development, while the identified emerging themes are corporate governance and economic sustainability. The niche themes reflect the well-established, widely studied, and foundational aspects of Islamic finance. Although their core concepts are not new, they remain central to the literature, while the emerging themes reflect the new or rapidly growing focus. Emerging themes, such as corporate governance and economic sustainability, are recently gaining attention for several reasons, including regulatory developments in Islamic finance, global ESG and SDG pressures, technological advances, and market evolution, as well as a shift from micro-level interventions to macro-level systemic considerations.

Figure 14's three-field plot gives an idea of the relative contributions of the keywords, which reveals the relationships between core elements, including keywords, authors, and countries. Based on the figure, keywords such as “corporate governance,” “sustainability,” and “sustainable development” are correlated and interrelated. These three keywords are strongly correlated with specific authors and countries due to their conceptual interconnection. To illustrate, governance practices support sustainability initiatives that drive sustainable development. These links are reinforced by authors specialising in these overlapping themes and by countries with mature Islamic finance markets and regulatory frameworks, which produce concentrated research.

The citation analysis examines the references, sources, and documents, and further evaluates the impact of authors and sources, highlighting the significance of their influence (Garfield, 1979). It is a method used to evaluate the impact, influence, and connection of research works by examining how often and where others have cited a particular document, author, or journal. Table 6 shows the most impactful authors in ISF. According to the table, Hassan MK is the leading author, followed by Engku Ali and Jan A. These authors have published a high number of papers in the ISF domain, which significantly increases visibility, citations, and contributions to the field. For example, Hassan MK is widely recognised for research on sukuk, Islamic banking governance, and sustainable finance, which are core topics in ISF.

Table 7 lists the most impactful sources. It was found that Sustainability has the highest h-index, representing the most impactful source in ISF, followed by the ISRA International Journal of Islamic Finance and Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research. Researchers in this field may find this information crucial for selecting target outlets for future publications in this domain. Several factors contributed to these findings. First, Many Sustainability articles are open access, which facilitates greater readership and citations globally. This journal also covers emerging topics, such as ESG, corporate governance, and sustainable development, which are becoming increasingly central to ISF research. Second, the ISRA International Journal of Islamic Finance primarily focuses on Islamic finance, making it a preferred choice for ISF research. In contrast, the Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research has attracted contributions from multiple countries, thereby enhancing its global visibility and citation impact.

VOSviewer visualises the bibliometric networks (Van Eck and Waltman, 2013). Co-authorship, co-occurrence, and co-citation were analysed to network the relationships between authors, countries, keywords, and sources.

In co-authorship analysis, clusters are formed and examined by analysing the number of authors collaborating on a work. As shown in Figure 15, among the prominent authors who were working together were Musari and Alhammadi. Both of them likely focus on emerging ISF themes, such as corporate governance and ESG integration, which naturally lead to joint publications.

Malaysia is the leading country in research related to ISF. Authors from Malaysia were found to collaborate with authors from different countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy and Qatar. Network collaboration is also established between countries such as the United States, India, Bahrain, Bangladesh and Australia, as presented in Figure 16. Several factors contributed to these findings. First, Islamic finance and sustainability are global research topics that attract interest from scholars worldwide. Second, institutional and funding support play a role, as reflected in collaborative projects and publications. Third, cross-country perspectives require experts from different regulatory or economic environments, which encourages co-authorship.

The map created and illustrated in Figure 17 also assessed collaboration among authors from various countries. Thicker red lines illustrate heavy collaborations between countries. According to the figure, authors from Central Asia, including those from Pakistan and India, collaborated extensively with authors from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Collaborations also exist with authors from the United States. Several factors contribute to this finding. For example, Pakistan and India share historical, cultural, and religious connections with Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and Indonesia, which encourages collaborative research. Furthermore, Malaysia and other countries in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, are well-established hubs for Islamic finance, attracting researchers from other countries to collaborate on joint publications in the ISF domain.

The articles on ISF are also assessed through bibliographic coupling to map the citations. Keyword coupling shows which keywords frequently appear together in the same documents. Based on Figure 18, keywords such as Islamic banks, sustainability, and corporate governance are among the common research themes. As Islamic banks are the primary institutions implementing Shariah-compliant financial practices, they are the natural focus of ISF research.

Coupling by authors was also examined to investigate how closely related two or more authors were based on the references they cite in their publications. Figure 19 shows that Alhammadi leads the blue cluster with several co-authors, including Rabbani, who might be researching similar topics. Musari leads the purple clusters, with collaborations with Engku and Hashim, while Hamidi leads the pink clusters. The complementary expertise between them encourages them to collaborate within the same cluster, which subsequently enhances their research productivity. For example, Alhammadi and Rabbani likely focus on a shared niche area, such as corporate governance, risk sharing, and sustainability, which leads to repeated co-authorship and the formation of the blue cluster.

Figure 20 shows the coupling by country. It shows that authors from Malaysia collaborate with authors from various countries, including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Qatar. The results reveal international research similarities between authors from these countries. The similarities between these countries, including their research networks, shared shariah-based frameworks, and research infrastructure and expertise, lead to these findings.

This section presents a content analysis and outlines an emerging research agenda based on the existing literature. The ten most cited articles, presented in Table 8, were analysed. The segmentation framework, which was divided into the nature of the article, research method, and theme, was presented in Figure 21.

This study categorises the nature of the articles into two categories: empirical and theoretical. From Table 8 of the most cited articles, seven were empirical, while three were theoretical. For example, Sobhani et al. (2012) and Nobanee and Ellili (2016) discussed sustainability disclosure in annual reports and websites, Belal et al. (2015) examined ethical conduct in sustainability reporting with full disclosure, while Abbas et al. (2019) focused on the impact of knowledge sharing and innovation on sustainability performance. The results suggest that researchers in this field tend to focus more on practical applications and address real-world problems.

The majority of research in this field is qualitative in nature. Five of the most-cited articles used quantitative methodology, and five used qualitative methods. For instance, Abbas et al. (2019) examined the effect of innovation and knowledge sharing on long-term performance in Islamic banks using a mediation analysis based on a structural equation modelling approach. Di Bella and Al-Fayoumi (2016) focused on stakeholders’ perceptions of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Islamic banks in Jordan. A balanced use of both methods suggests that research in this field is well-developed, with researchers not just about testing models (quantitative) but also exploring a deeper understanding, context, and meaning (qualitative).

Based on the thematic analysis conducted and illustrated in Figure 13, this paper further explores the themes identified in the existing literature. The themes, which were divided into four categories— niche, motor, emerging, and basic —were identified. From Table 7 of the most cited articles, the analysis revealed that two articles were categorised under basic themes, four under emerging themes, and the other four under motor themes. For example, an article by Nobanee (20126) categorised an emerging theme and discussed sustainability issues. Dusuki (2008) and Belal et al. (2015) also categorised the emerging theme as they discuss Islamic banking issues.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth bibliometric analysis and a content analysis of the academic literature on ISF and its role in achieving the SDGs. A total of 306 journal articles, published from 1997 to 2025 and indexed in Scopus, were reviewed. From the analysis, this study reported key aspects of research in this field, including the identification of the most influential authors, affiliations, and countries. The frequently used keywords, the citations, and the network were also discussed.

Oseni and Hassan are among the most influential authors. The International Islamic University Malaysia has the highest affiliations, and most of its publications were authored by Malaysian researchers. Malaysia also has the highest number of citations for research in this field. In terms of sources, the Islamic Green Finance journal has published the most articles in the ISF domain.

The keyword analysis reveals that the trending keywords are Islamic finance, investment, banking and sustainability. In contrast, the network analysis, which aims to analyse collaboration between authors, found that Malaysia is the leading research hub on ISF, with strong cooperation with countries in Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. This study further analysed the top 10 most cited in this field. A segmentation framework was presented, and a summary of the literature content was discussed. According to the findings, most articles in Islamic sustainability finance were conducted in the banking industry, were empirical, and employed quantitative and qualitative research methods. This bibliometric study generates new research agendas and directions for ISF. It sheds light on the relationship between Islamic finance and how Islamic finance plays a crucial role in supporting the implementation of the SDGs.

This study is essential for different parties. For researchers, this study helps identify research gaps that lead to more publications in this domain. This study also provides a guide for scholars to understand how the field has evolved by evaluating key themes, trends, and knowledge gaps. For policymakers and practitioners, this study provides a basis for informed decision-making. For example, by understanding the emerging themes and trends, they can align their strategies and product offerings with the latest research insights to stay competitive and compliant.

The results of this study show that considerable research has been conducted in the ISF domain. However, there are apparent research gaps in the existing literature in this field. First, ESG integration in Islamic finance remains underdeveloped. Hence, topics such as green sukuk, social impact investing, and Islamic microfinance for the SDGs deserve more in-depth analysis. This study also found that most of the research was concentrated on a specific country. As sustainability is a global agenda, there's also a need for cross-country analyses, which may shed light on regulating and addressing pervasive issues such as climate change, poverty, hunger, and equitable economic development. Future studies should also focus on expanding the scope of this field by exploring strategies on how Islamic Finance can ensure that financial resources are mobilised sustainably to achieve the SDGs.

This study is not without its limitations. First, this study only considers articles published in the Scopus database. Therefore, books, chapters, articles published in non-Scopus-indexed journals, editorial materials, reviews, and proceedings papers were excluded from the analysis. Second, this study suggests a broader landscape of knowledge in the research field, thus indicating that all sources should be considered, including book reviews, chapters, papers published in international and academic journals, editorial materials, reviews, and proceedings papers across the Scopus database. Third, it may be better to compare the same study focus of bibliometric analysis across different databases, for example, data from the Scopus database versus the Web of Science (WOS) database for wider coverage. This will provide a better view of the bibliometric analysis gap for future research studies.