Guo, L; Zhang, S; Wu, P; Wang, J and Jiang, S (2026) A review on the global communication research in construction: A bibliometric perspective. International Journal of Construction Management, 26(6), pp. 974-993. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
Communication among the stakeholders has critical influences on the knowledge sharing among them and overall performance of construction projects. However, a comprehensive review on communication in construction is absent, leading to a poor understanding on the research status and future research directions in this field. This research, therefore, aims to conduct a review on global communication research in construction from a bibliometric perspective. CiteSpace software was used to visualize and analyze the papers related to communication in construction in Web of Science Core Collection from 2015 to 2024. 189 English papers were screened and then analyzed. The results indicate that the number of construction communication papers has been generally increasing in recent years. Although researchers have shown significant interests in communication issues pertaining to management, performance, and model, the research hotspot areas have evolved over the past two five-year periods. Six important clusters were identified including building information modeling, construction industry, social network analysis, safety communication, and others. Research limitations within the topics and methods, along with future directions, were discussed in depth based on the analysis results. The insights obtained from this paper are valuable for researchers to embark on further research on communication in construction in the future.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | bibliometric; citespace; communication; construction; review |
| Index terms: | construction project, knowledge sharing, social network analysis, science, construction industry, building information modelling |
| Subjects: | research methods, production management, specialized education, knowledge management, industry analysis, information systems |
| Topics: | Education, Project Management, Digital Applications, Research Practice, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here