Growth and impact of blockchain scientific collaboration network: a bibliometric analysis

Numerous authors have presented the blockchain in their literature as a disruptive combustion engine with the potential to transform organizations and technology in the current digital economy, with features like validation of transactions, safeguarding of entries, preservation of records, immutability, decentralization, consensus, and faster settlement. However, literature on scientific production and collaboration through bibliometric and network analysis is still lacking. Based on the data extracted from the Web of Science from 2014-2020 with 6790 records, the emerging trends and collaboration patterns of blockchain technology are studied with the use of bibliometrics and network analysis. The study asserts (i) the impact of open-access publication on the growth and visibility of literature, (ii) the collaboration patterns and it's impact on team size, (iii) the ranking of countries based on their national and international collaboration, and (iv) thematic analysis of literature. The results show growth in the literature since 2017, and open-access publications have received more citations. Very few authors are actively working in the field, as only 73.7% of authors have published a single paper on the blockchain. China published the highest number of papers, followed by the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Singapore published a large number of papers with international collaboration and Russia with national collaboration, whereas the USA showed a balance between national and international publications. Finally, thematic analysis figured out the five key themes as supply chain management, smart contract, security, distributed ledger technology, and internet of things in contrast to the blockchain. Hence, this study investigates scientific productions by means of open-access publications, collaboration patterns, ranking, and key areas in blockchain literature.