SCHOLARLY COMMUNITIES OF RESEARCH IN MULTIPLE CRITERIA DECISION MAKING: A BIBLIOMETRIC RESEARCH PROFILING STUDY

Electronic journal databases allow efficient retrieval and processing of bibliometric data, making possible enhanced literature reviews called research profiling studies. We have conducted such a research profiling study of Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) using the ISI Web of Science. The ISI database covers close to 9000 publications, mainly journals. We report statistics regarding how the MCDM field has developed based on variations of a set of rather broad search words. We have also produced detailed correlation maps based on most cited authors for different decades, showing the birth and evolution of different schools of thought. We seek to provide the "big picture" of MCDM. Our study shows that the field has experienced exponential growth. At the same time it has penetrated other neighboring domains of knowledge, such as Information and Communication Technologies and engineering.