Growth, trends and prevalent topics in geotechnical engineering (1998–2022) using topic modelling

Abstract

Data gathered from 65 922 articles published in 30 geotechnical engineering journals between 1998 and 2022 were used to build a topic model and study the evolution of research output in the field. Over this period, the number of journal publications has grown exponentially with the number of articles published per year doubling every 6·3 years. The average citations per article (32·7) are skewed by highly cited articles, which make up 7·8% of the articles but account for 34·5 of the total number of citations. The articles’ country of origin has become increasingly centralised, with nearly half the articles published between 2018 and 2022 coming from China (39%) and the United States (10%). The topic distribution in the field has become highly specialised, with emerging topics being fuelled by: (a) new technologies and methods (i.e. data science and sensing techniques – the fastest-growing topics), and (b) rising applications seemingly related to mitigation (e.g. offshore and energy geotechnics) and adaptation (e.g. geohazards, mass movements) to climate change. As a consequence, traditional topics (e.g. soil and rock mechanics) have reduced their share in the field, but still remain among the most cited topics in geotechnical engineering.