Trends in Publishing Blockchain Surveys: A Bibliometric Perspective

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 801 blockchain survey papers published over five years, revealing publication trends, author collaborations, citation patterns, and survey characteristics to guide newcomers and researchers.

Contribution

It is the first study to systematically analyze publication trends, authorship, and citation patterns of blockchain surveys, offering valuable insights into the field's development.

Findings

Identified key publishers and venues for blockchain surveys.

Analyzed collaboration networks among authors.

Highlighted citation trends and survey length variations.

Abstract

A large number of survey papers are being published in blockchain since the first survey appeared in 2017. A person entering into the field of blockchain is faced with the issue of which blockchain surveys to read and why? Who is publishing these surveys and what is the nature of these surveys? Which of the publishers are publishing more such surveys and what are the lengths of the published surveys? Which kind of survey is getting more citations? Which of the authors is collaborating on such surveys? etc. All these questions motivated us to analyze the trends in publishing blockchain surveys. In this paper, we have performed a bibliometric analysis on $801$ surveys or review papers published in the field of blockchain in the last approximately five years. We have analyzed the papers with respect to the publication type, publishers and venue, references, citations, paper length, different categories, year, countries, authors, and their collaborations and found interesting insights. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first of its kind and hope to provide better understanding of the field.