An Overview of Fifty Years of Appropriate Technology Research Using Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Appropriate technology (AT) has developed from an economic theory in the early 1970s into a broad multidisciplinary research methodology that is incorporated into many sustainable development fields. AT is an important tool in the fight against current global challenges, such as climate change and poverty. Hence, a bibliometric analysis of the AT research field over the last fifty years was performed to provide insights into the field and its current hot topics. Since the early 2000s, there has been a rapid increase in the number of papers and citations in the AT field, indicating that the AT methodology is increasingly applied in research. Over time, the fraction of single-author papers has decreased (and the number of authors per paper has increased), indicating that AT topics are attracting the interest of larger research groups. Although AT is often applied in developing countries, the most influential countries with respect to research were generally the English-speaking countries (e.g., USA, UK, and India), along with China, Germany, and Spain. This was attributed to English being the lingua franca of research, more than an accurate representation of the application of AT. A keyword analysis identified that economic development, environment, health, and agriculture were the most popular AT topics over the last fifty years. Since 2005, topics such as computing and telemedicine began increasing in popularity, while in the past three years, automation-and-control, and smart-city topics have emerged. Bibliometric analysis is a valuable research tool for providing insight into the overall AT field.