A bibliometric overview of Transportation Research Part B: Methodological in the past forty years (1979–2019)

Abstract In 1979, Transportation Research Part B: Methodological (TR-Part B) split from its mother journal Transportation Research, which was founded by Dr. Frank A. Haight in 1967, to set off on a journey as an independent journal with a theme on methodological development of transportation science. Since then, TR-Part B has been a leading international journal in the field of transportation research. Motivated by the 40th anniversary of TR-Part B (1979–2019), this paper utilized a bibliometric analysis technique to present a lifetime overview of the development characteristics and contribution details of TR-Part B in the past 40 years. The data used in this analysis were derived from the Core Collection Database of Web of Science, producing a total of 2,697 papers that were regular articles and reviews published in TR-Part B during the study period from 1979 to 2019. A systematic bibliometric analysis was conducted using VOSviewer software around two main aspects. First, analysis was conducted on publication and citation structures, the leading authors, organizations, and regions/countries with the most number of academic publications in TR-Part B, as well as those individuals and sources citing TR-Part B the most. Second, a visualization of the bibliometric characteristics of TR-Part B was presented in a knowledge mapping network analysis of co-authorship and bibliographic coupling. This paper reviews the contributions made to the lifetime development of TR-Part B during the past four decades and reveals insightful bibliometric findings.