A comprehensive bibliometric analysis and assessment of high-impact research on the berth allocation problem

This paper aims at the identification and assessment of High-Impact Research Papers (HIRPs) on the Berth Allocation Problem (BAP) research at marine terminals. The BAP objective is to optimally assign and schedule ships at berthing positions along a quay, as well as to determine the berthing times and positions of ships at a port. The purpose of this study is to facilitate the work of the relevant research community and ultimately promote the research quality in this area. In meeting this objective, the paper utilizes a systematic and fair method to determine HIRPs of the BAP, which is based on the h-index and the g-index. An in-depth bibliometric analysis of the identified studies reveals their key features and characteristics. The analysis was conducted using the VOSviewer and bibliometrix R-package software programs. The main findings provide many useful insights on the BAP research development. The adopted approach and associated analysis results present an up-to-date detailed picture of the BAP research and constitute a valuable tool for its applications into other relevant research areas. The common trends in the reviewed HIRPs and important future research needs are discussed in a comprehensive manner. This survey study can be viewed as the first attempt for a comprehensive bibliometric survey of the high-impact BAP literature, which will be of a great value to researchers and industry practitioners. Furthermore, the proposed methodology for the identification of HIRPs can be used not only for the BAP research but for the literature surveys in other domains as well.