Scientometric review of construction project schedule studies: Trends, gaps and potential research areas

Scheduling plays a fundamental role in construction projects’ success and thus has drawn attention from both academic researchers and industry practitioners. A large number of research articles tend to solve emerging challenges in construction project schedule (CPS). Therefore, there is a strong need of systematic review on existing studies. In this study, a total of 332 articles were retrieved from Scopus database using title, abstract and keywords with respect to CPS and filtered by document type, language type and abstract content. In particular, science mapping approach was adopted to analyse selected journal articles. These articles were examined using three sequential processes, including bibliometric search, scientometric analysis, and in-depth qualitative discussion. It could demonstrate the most influential journals, researchers, published articles, and active countries/regions in this area. In addition, major CPS knowledge areas were identified and summarized as CPS constructability, applications of variety of CPS methods, CPS optimization models and algorithms, identification and quantification of schedule risks and uncertainties, CPS performance management, and adopting new emerging CPS technologies and methods. Furthermore, knowledge gaps and future potential research directions were also discussed in detail. Finally, a comprehensive CPS framework was proposed as a sound reference in future research.