Recently, the most-cited papers of the twenty-first century across all fields were announced (Pearson et al., 2025). Consequently, JDIS was curious about the most-cited papers in the fields of bibliometrics, scientometrics, and the science of science and the trends reflected by these works.
In April 2025, JDIS selected the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, and OpenAlex as the data sources, adopting a paper-level classification to identify bibliometrics-related papers (see Appendix for the details). Table 1 shows the top 10 most-cited bibliometrics-related papers (see Appendix for the Top 25).
Top 10 most-cited bibliometrics-related papers.
| Rank (Median) | Paper | Times cited (range across databases) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping | 10526~14500 |
| 2 | An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output | 7622~10730 |
| 3 | Bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis | 4372~6992 |
| 4 | How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines | 4060~4774 |
| 5 | CiteSpace II: Detecting and visualizing emerging trends and transient patterns in scientific literature | 2965~4681 |
| 6 | Bibliometric Methods in Management and Organization | 2850~3841 |
| 7 | Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: strengths and weaknesses | 2422~3236 |
| 8 | The journal coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: a comparative analysis | 2084~3295 |
| 9 | The increasing dominance of teams in production of knowledge | 1845~2248 |
| 10 | Searching for intellectual turning points: Progressive knowledge domain visualization | 1767~2612 |
Source databases: Web of Science, Scopus, OpenAlex. For a list of the top 25 most-cited works, precise data, and methods, see Appendix.
By grouping the top-cited papers, we identify patterns and propose tips for future research directions. We distinguish four groups.
- (1)
Bibliometric analysis, Science mapping software, and the future of adopting AI
Among the top 10 papers, six are about the methodology and tools of science mapping. With AI’s development, combining AI, bibliometric analysis, and science mapping may bring new opportunities①.
- (2)
Indicators combining different aspects
The papers introducing the h-index and the g-index are among the top 25. Both combine the number of papers and citation impact. Indicators combining or focusing on new aspects bring new energy to the field. Similarly, novelty and disruption measures, though not yet listed in the top 25 are accumulating citations quickly.
- (3)
Comparison of bibliometric databases
Among the top 25 papers, three papers focus on a comparison of bibliometric databases. New databases, like Dimensions, OpenAlex, Altmetrics, Overton are becoming popular, and comparing their coverage, advantages, and drawbacks attracts a lot of attention②.
- (4)
Collaboration and team science
Three papers on research collaboration and team science rank among the top 25. In the era of big science, team-based research has become the prevailing approach. Gaining insight into how teams operate is both timely and essential for enhancing their performance.