Publication trends in literature on eBooks: a Scopus based bibliometric analysis

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to analyze the global scientific outputs on eBooks research using Scopus database. Design/methodology/approach - This study collected literature published during 2001-2016 from the Scopus database. Following keywords were used: "eBook*", "e-Book*", "electronic book*" or "online book*" in title or keyword or abstract with time span covering 2001 to 2016. The authors further restricted their search limit to subject category of social science, computer science and arts and humanities. A total of 2,965 documents were found from the search strategy, including 1,582 research articles. Articles were considered for the analysis using Microsoft Excel 2007. The bibliometric analysis was performed to analyze the document types, language, publication output, citations, authorship pattern, journals, prolific authors, productive countries and most frequently appeared top words/phrases from the title of the articles. Findings - Literature on eBooks grown exponential and eBooks was the hot topic of the research in recent decade. Most of the articles were contributed by the single authors, and the USA and the UK were the most productive countries; however, in recent times, Taiwan has also joined them. The articles published in the year 2009 have recorded highest citation rate. Publishing Research Quarterly was the most productive journal, which has published 61 articles on eBooks, followed by the Electronic Library (59) and Library Hi Tech News (35). Korat O. was the most productive author on eBooks research who was affiliated to Bar-Ilan University, Israel. The researchers were keen on investigating the experience of use of eBooks, reader, impact, challenges, access, reading habits and usage of the eBooks. Originality/value - This is the first kind of study to quantify global research patterns and trends in eBooks, which might provide a potential guide for the future research.