Looking at the ‘Big Picture’ in Islamic Economics and Finance Literature: A Bibliometric Analysis of WoS Indexed Documents

Abstract

This study aimed to indicate the general trend of Islamic economics and finance (IEF) studies through bibliometric analysis. Therefore, the Web of Science (WoS), which is one of the most respected databases, for the period 1975-2019 with a total of 1,120 documents is examined. The documents were classified, analyzed, and visualized through VOS-viewer software, and the main trends in terms of countries, organizations, authors, and publishers were indicated. This study revealed the trends of IEF literature by reviewing thirty articles with the most co-citations and creating a keyword map. The findings showing the current state and trends of the IEF discipline are quite remarkable. It has been found that Malaysia ranks first among countries and institutions in terms of the number of publications. While Abbas Mirakhor was the author with the most publications, the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management was the most publishing institution. Besides, in keyword network analysis, it is seen that the institutions and subjects of Islamic finance are dominant in Islamic economics and finance studies. These findings bringing the “Is the IEF discipline financialized?” debate back to the agenda is expected to inspire many new study topics.