A knowledge domain visualization review of thirty years of halal food research: Themes, trends and knowledge structure

In this comprehensive review we analyze the intellectual structure of the halal food research based on 290 Web of Science (WoS) core collection documents written by 633 authors from 41 countries over three decades (1990–2019). The review adopts a knowledge domain visualization technique to explore the basic bibliometric/scientometric profile of the field, its influential authors, its core journals, its representative references, its collaborative patterns, its research hotspots/emerging trends, its changing paradigms and its knowledge/intellectual structure. We also borrow concepts from social network analysis to uncover and map out structural attributes of communication networks in the field as well as to illuminate how different actors exchange information. Social network analysis shows that halal food research networks reflect what is sometimes called the Matthew Effect in sociology-a mechanism akin to the preferential attachment in which a small number of hubs have larger number of connections compared to the rest of actors. We further use burst detection techniques to visually explore halal food research fronts and its distinct schools of thought (the so-called ‘invisible colleges’). By so doing, we provide a window through which the knowledge domain of halal food landscape can be examined.