Examining Trends, Themes and Social Structure of Zakat Literature: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This study specifically examines the development of zakat research from the aspects of five bibliometric indicators: (1) current development of zakat research and its distribution; (2) topic areas and themes in zakat research; (3) main contributors of zakat research; (4) current collaboration pattern in zakat studies; and (5) most influential documents in zakat literature. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 405 scientific papers on zakat recorded in the Scopus database until 2021. Various tools have been used – Microsoft Excel for frequency analysis, VOSviewer for data visualization, and Harzing’s Publish or Perish for metrics and citation analysis. This study finds that the number of zakat literature has increased significantly and consistently over the last ten years. The fields of Social Science, Business, Management, Accounting, Economics, and Finance are areas where zakat literature often appears in and is based in countries in the US, Europe and Asia. English is used in most zakat literature, along with several other languages like Malay, Arabic, German, Indonesian, Slovak, and Turkish. Research results also indicate that the zakat literature is mainly found in the subject areas of economics, finance, management, and accounting. The use of keywords such as zakat, Malaysia, zakat institution, poverty alleviation, zakat distribution, zakat management, social welfare, education, efficiency, and human are widespread. This study also found that Malaysia, Indonesia, America, Saudi Arabia, and Britain have become the five countries that have played a major role in creating collaborative zakat research. The findings of this study provide important implications for improving the practice and reach of zakat globally.