A bibliometric analysis and assessment of container terminal operations research

PurposeThe paper undertakes a bibliometric analysis and assessment of journal publications in the field of container terminal operations research (CTOR), in an attempt to identify high-impact papers (HIPs) published in Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index (SCI/SSCI) journals of CTOR subject category from 1973 to 2020.Design/methodology/approachA structured approach for identifying the HIPs is developed based on the utilization of bibliometric and network analyses.FindingsThe CTOR papers are assessed in terms of publication outputs, distribution of outputs in SCI/SSCI journals, authorship, institutions and countries, as well as citation life cycles of papers with the highest total citations since their publication until the year 2020. The results show that between 1989 and 2015, there were 82 HIPs in the field of CTOR, which have been cited at least 200 times, with more than 50% of these citations allocated in the second part of paper citation life cycle according to the database of Google Scholar.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of the aforementioned reviewing and assessing journal publications of CTOR is that it offers the ability to reveal the tone of its development through addressing main characteristics of the relevant HIPs as determined by the highly cited papers in this field of research.Originality/valueThis paper offers a unique analysis and assessment in the field of CTOR by identifying the relevant HIPs and their associated scientific actors (authors, institutions and countries), thus facilitating the future research effort in the field of CTOR.