The state of metaverse research: a bibliometric visual analysis based on CiteSpace

Abstract

Abstract Objective To understand the current status of research in the field of metaverse, and to analyze the research progress and evolutionary trends in this field. Methods Based on the bibliometric analysis, a total of 921 papers were obtained by searching the Web of science core database for the keyword "metaverse". CiteSpace was used to visualize and analyze the current status and trends of metaverse research in China. Results Ireland is currently the country with the highest research impact. China is currently the country with the largest number of publications in this field, but the impact of the research is insufficient. The current research in the highly cited literature focuses on technical and history reviews of the metaverse as well as its development in the field of education. Artificial Intelligence and utaut2 are the underlying clusters of cited literature in this research area. Several research hotspots have been formed, such as virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, digital twins and artificial intelligence. Conclusion The current research on metaverse in various fields is basically in its infancy, but has a great potential for future development and will gradually penetrate into many different directions with many challenges.