Bibliometric analysis of 50 years of energy research in Malaysia: Trends and opportunities

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis on the evolution and characteristics of energy research in Malaysia over the past of 50 years. Scopus database was used to reveal past, present and future trends through the VOSviewer software tool. The results show that the energy research in Malaysia with its both renewable and non-renewable energy types has generally shown a growing trend throughout the period involved. However, a steady and dramatic increase in energy research has only been observed since the year 2009. The documents published in last 10 years accounted for 75.7 % of the 31,748 total published documents over the span of five decades. The majority of the publications were journal articles (61.2 %), followed by conference proceedings (27.7 %). The field “Engineering” is the leading subject area, followed by “Energy” and “Materials Science” field. While the most subject areas studied are "renewable energy", "energy efficiency," "energy storage," and "bioenergy”. The journal “Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews” and “Iop Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science” proceeding are the top sources of publications for Malaysian researchers. In terms of international collaboration, Saudi Arabia is the top international collaborator with Malaysia while a limited representation from South American countries.