How Has E-Book Research Evolved? A Bibliometric Comparison of International Journal Publications (2000-2019)

Abstract

This study is a longitudinal observation of e-book research. Through a series of keyword searches, a total of 579 articles with 7,554 citations were obtained and collected from the Web of Science database. This study spanned the period 2000-2019, and research data retrieval was completed on June 24th, 2020. Through a bibliometric analysis, the top ten most frequently cited articles in each of the two decades that were covered were identified and compared. The findings were two-fold. First, the main research topics across the two decades included a performance comparison between e-books and the printed versions (e.g., in terms of vocabulary, comprehension, and reading rates) as well as e-book acceptance and usage in the academic library context. Second, in the previous decade, as opposed to the one prior, e-book research has seen more diverse research themes as the main foci; some emergent research topics, such as joint parent-child reading, the e-book’s interactive learning system, and the theoretical model of e-book adoption were identified. It is also interesting to note that e-book research has expanded its territory beyond education and libraries to both the business and communication fields. Further discussion is provided.