Global Tribology Research Output (1998 - 2012): A Macro Level Scientometric Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compare country output and citation impact as well as to assess the level of interdisciplinarity in the field of tribology research during the period 1998-2012, based on the SCOPUS database. Macro-level scientometric indicators such as growth rate, share of international collaborative papers, citation per paper, share of un-cited papers, and publication efficiency index were employed. Further, the Simpson Index of Diversity was used to measure the level of interdisciplinarity. The performance of top countries contributing more than 1000 papers during the study period was discussed. Contributions and share of continents and countries by income groups were examined. Further research contributions and citation impact of selected country groups were analyzed. This study reveals that high levels of interdisciplinarity exist in tribology research. Asia outperforms the other world regions and China contributes most of the papers (25%), while the United States receives most of the citations (22%).