Analysis of Collaboration Evolution in AHP Research: 1982–2018

Bibliometric analysis is effective for evaluating the merits of a given discipline. This study provides an analysis of collaboration evolution in analytic hierarchy process (AHP) research from 1982 to 2018. As an important developed approach of AHP, analytic network process (ANP) is also considered in this review. 9859 publications are harvested from Web of Science to conduct this bibliometric analysis. Country and institution are the two primary objectives to investigate the collaboration pattern of the 9859 publications. The most prolific countries and institutions are identified based on bibliometric indicators, and the collaboration relationships between connected countries or institutions are explored based on science mapping techniques. Further, a dynamic analysis is provided to investigate the collaboration evolution of AHP publications at the levels of country and institution. This study offers a new topic on the overview research of AHP publications, and could help in developing the collaboration evolution analysis in the AHP field.