A bibliometric study on a new subject field: Energy analysis

Abstract

A bibliometric study on energy analysis literature is reported. The literature is characterised by heavy emphasis on English-language journal articles and reports, and, after an initial exponential growth rate, it is now growing more slowly. Examination of the titles of articles demonstrated that even after ten years there is no standard terminology in the area. This casts doubt on the value of searching by title terms for new interdisciplinary subjects. On the other hand, secondary services employing controlled-language indexing were found to index the articles under a variety of headings. In any case, coverage of the subject by secondary services is generally poor. There are no clear core journals for this subject area. Some recommendations are made on how both authors of papers in the field and secondary services can ensure better retrieval of energy analysis articles.