Global research trends in augmented reality: scientometric mapping based on Scopus database
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-08-2021-0081 |
| Published date | 30 December 2021 |
| Date | 30 December 2021 |
| Pages | 387-403 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Library & information services,Lending,Document delivery,Collection building & management,Stock revision,Consortia |
| Author | Dhruba Jyoti Borgohain,Deepali Arun Bhanage,Manoj Kumar Verma,Ambika Vishal Pawar |
Global research trends in augmented reality:
scientometric mapping based on
Scopus database
Dhruba Jyoti Borgohain
Department of Library and Information Science, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India
Deepali Arun Bhanage
Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India
Manoj Kumar Verma
Department of Library and Information Science, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India, and
Ambika Vishal Pawar
Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to present a scientometric analysis of publications related to “Augmented Reality.”In today’s Information Technology-
driven era, augmented reality (A.R.) has evolved as a new immersive data source for developing knowl edge combining authentic and digital images.
Consequently, extensive research is going on “Augmented Reality”to discover its potential in knowledge development.
Methodology –The paper analyses and emphasizes the bibliographic data of Scopusarticles with a suitable search query. The study was done concerning the
chronological growth of research publications, highly cited publications, productive countries, prominent journals , prolific authors and institutions, author and
country co-authorship network analysis and keywords analysis. The analysis was conducted by using open-source tools such as VOSViewer, BiblioshinyandGephi.
Findings –The study reveals that a maximum number of publications on research in “Augmented Reality”are in the form of conference
proceedings and articles. A.R., Virtual reality and A.R. application are the keywords with maximum number of occurrences. A significant number of
publications are done in the USA, followed by Germany in the year 2020.
Originality/value –This study provides a precise idea of work done in different countries, a network of co-authorship between authors and
countries, publication and citation impact of authors, journals, institutions and countries, year-wise progression and trending “augmented reality”
topics research. This investigation will be advantageous for researchers and stakeholders to obtain rigorous bibliographic knowledge on literature
related to the topic and work accordingly for R&D activities.
Keywords Augmented reality, A.R. application, Augmented reality techniques, Scientometric analysis, Bibliometric analysis, Information science
Paper type General review
1. Introduction
Augmented reality (A.R.) results from the combination of real and
digital images evolving as an immersive data source for cementing
knowledge.A.R.isdefined as synchronous view of a real setting in
direct or indirect mode which has become aided with virtual
computer-enhanced technologies (Carmigniani and Furht, 2011).
A.R. has three dimensions: first is the ability to combine both
virtual and real items in the environment, second is the ability to
communicate in real-time and thirdly, precise application to real
and virtual instances (Azuma, 1997). The real environment is not
infringed: it is a real-time communication among real-world and
virtual instances (Erbas and Demirer, 2014). American inventor
Louis Rosenberg developed virtual fixtures at US Airforce
Armstrong Laboratory, TX. This was the first A.R. syste m
(Norman, 2014). In the past few years, investors and the general
mass on A.R. and Virtual Reality (V.R.), mainly when Zuckerberg
bought Oculus worth $2bn (Lukerson, 2014;Castelvecchi, 2016).
According to a recent literature review , many researchers consider
A.R. to be a more real time technology in comparison to V.R. and
shows a multi-disciplinary nature, and now-a-days, application of
A.R. in education and understanding appears to have the most
investigated research area (Cipresso et al., 2018). Like the V.R.,
existence, extent of being real and the grade of realism portray the
primary characteristics that, perhaps, assumed as the pointers of
experiences in an A.R. environment. Th e perception of being
realistic and congruency of expectations of the patrons and the
interaction inside the A.R. environment is directly proportional to
the state of “being there”in physical, cognitive and emotional
conventional. The acting behaviour as if we are in a real
environment is related to the feeling of presence in both A.R. and
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
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Information Discovery and Delivery
50/4 (2022) 387–403
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2398-6247]
[DOI 10.1108/IDD-08-2021-0081]
Received 8 August 2021
Revised 20 September 2021
5 November 2021
Accepted 4 December 2021
387
V.R. environment (Botella et al., 2005;Jaun et al.,2005;Wrzesien
et al., 2013).
While A.R. uses a real world setting, V.R. is completely
virtual. Moreover, patrons of A.R. can assess it with a
smartphone and can have control in the real world, but V.R.
needs a headset device and is controlled by the system. A.R. is
more trending technologythan V.R.; it has been used in several
research areas. Some of them are maintenance (Schwald and
De Laval, 2003), entertainment (Ozbeket al., 2004), medicine
(De Buck et al., 2005), psychological treatments (Jaun et al.,
2005;Botella et al., 2005,2010;Chicchi Giglioli et al.,2015),
science (Cai et al.,2013;Sumadio and Rambli, 2010),
architecture (Lin and Hsu, 2017) and education (Nincarean
et al.,2013;Bacca et al., 2014). Now, the question arises on the
application of A.R. on science, and why it would not be applied
as it is having a vast number of advantages like increasing
student’s motivation in learning(Cai et al.,2013;Sumadio and
Rambli, 2010;Wojciechowskiand Cellary, 2013); presentation
of an influential learning environment (Iordache et al., 2012)
and makes the course an amusement and guarantees vigorous
contributionof students (Yoon et al., 2012).
Scientometricanalysis basically is done in two aspects.
Performance measurement. This include publication related
metrics like total publications (TP), sole-authored
publications, number of contributing authors, co-authored
publications. Citation related metrics like total citations
(TC), average citations, citations per paper (CPP). Citation
and publication related metrics like collaborative index (CI)
(Lawani, 1980), collaboration coefficient (CC) (Ajiferuke,
Burrel and Tague, 1988), h-index (Hirsch, 2005), g-index
(Egghe, 2006), number of cited publications.
Science mapping. This includes citation analysis, co-
citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, co-word analysis,
co-authorship analysis. These aspects are quite traditional
in nature and involves manual practices. Network
visualization and cluster analysis came into practice.
Network analysis has evolved which is completely software
driven.
This involves network metrics like degree of association,
betweenness centrality, Eigenvector centrality, PageRank.
Cluster analysis using multi-dimensional scaling, Hierarchical
clustering, Simple Centres Algorithm. Visualization is another
component of networkanalysis. This is done using software like
Bibliometrix R, Bibexcel, Gephi, VOSviewer, Pajek (Donthu
et al., 2021). Our study involvesall two aspects of scientometric
analysis including network analysis except some citation and
publication related metrics and network metrics. This makes
our study differentfrom traditional methods.
As A.R. is an emerging technology that gives an interactive
experience of the real world in a smartphone itself, so it has
immense contribution in enhancing teaching-learning
environment in the form of e-learning or mobile learning. A.R.
has wide range of benefits in educational environment, such as
motivation to learn, enjoyment, promoting interest in the subject,
content engagement, content retention (Atwood-Blaine and
Huffman, 2017). The quality and quantity of publications in
A.R. are changing year by year. So, to track the present hot spots
and point the future directions, this study is performed which
drafts an approximate scenario of r esearch in A.R. to date.
The study analyses global resear ch on A.R. using different
metrics involving quality and quantity by applying relational
indicators that describe relationship between research networks
of individuals, institutions and countries (micro, meso and macro
levels). This effort will be helping the researchers working in this
area to understand the wide and growing body of evidence on the
topic as well as the trends in research. The study leaves
opportunity for researchers to analyse publications using citation
and publication metrics like CC, CI to measure the sociological
aspects of the publications and to prepare citation maps for
metrics like Bibliographic coupling on publications which may
give a better insight into their research impacts.
2. Literature review
Many research works are published on A.R. applications in
different aspects. But there have been only a few studies
discovered focusing the extensive bibliometric investigation on
A.R. research. Here, some related published journal articles are
reviewed that focus on bibliometric analysis of the application of
A.R. in education, science education, medicine, sports and
physical education and knowledge building. To investigate the
chronology of research on V.R. and A.R., Cipresso et al. (2018)
conducted a cluster analysis on available publications indexed in
Web of Science (WoS). The focus area of the study was network
analysis and centrality index of different elements like country,
author, institutions and keywords, etc. The analysis of literature
based on network and cluster depicted a wide-angle view
specified by the alterations and evolution since the inception of
research. A bibliometric study was conducted by Arici et al.
(2019) which investigated the research trends based on
publications that studies application of A.R. in science education
with data sourced from WoS. Often used keywords in abstract
were education, knowledge, science education, experiment and
effectiveness. The study also had findings for content analysis.
Another study was conducted by Karakus et al. (2019) on
available literature on the application of A.R. in education using
bibliometric parameters. The study targeted to evaluate the
bibliographic coupling of the countries, institutions, journals,
publications, authors and co-occurrence of author keywords.
Bibliographic visualizationtechniques were applied to depict
the specifications of the selected publications. The paper
addressed the research trend and the productivity concept of
A.R. in education. For visualization of network, density and
overlay, VOSviewer was used. Morenoet al. (2020) conducted
a study on the emergence of A.R. in physical education using
bibliometric parameters. The data for the study was sourced
from WoS and analysed in two phases. The fundamental
bibliometric indexes were calculated in the initial phase like a
year, author, country, institution and journal. For mapping the
results, the statistical software HistCite was reported to
be used. This study uses both quantitative and qualitative
parameters to analyse the research output in A.R. For analysis
of quality indexes, namely, total global citation score and total
local citation score (Garfield et al.,2003) were applied. In the
second case, the relationship within authorsand keywords was
analysed by carrying outco-authoring and co-keyword analysis
using VOSviewer software. Anotherpeculiar study by Bardhan
(2020) investigated the literature on the application of A.R.
and V.R. in commerce (retail) using bibliometric methods
Global research trends
Dhruba Jyoti Borgohain et al.
Information Discovery and Delivery
Volume 50 · Number 4 · 2022 · 387–403
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