Emerging Housing Studies Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa: Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose: The goal of this paper was to undertake a bibliometric and visual analysis of housing studies in sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on five factors: keyword network analysis, international collaboration, institution-author cooperation, journal co-citation networks, and research focuses. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study investigated 808 housing-related research publications from the Scopus database. The paper also made use of VOSviewer to undertake a bibliometric and visual examination of housing publications. Findings: The study found patterns, connections, and gaps in the literature. The findings also revealed a tendency of collaboration among countries, academic institutions, and housing research publication outlets. Practical Implications: The findings are not only practical for policymakers, but they also point to key areas which are underrepresented and thus can be the attention of future research. The paper also contributes to effective studies and projects aimed at achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for housing. Social Implications: Overall, the emerging research trends in housing in sub-Saharan Africa have significant social implications, principally in terms of enhancing the quality of housing, reducing social inequality, and promoting sustainable development. Originality and Value: Bibliometric analysis of the literature in most developing countries, such as sub-Saharan Africa is limited in terms of the trend of publications on housing. As such, this study has shed light on sub-Saharan Africa to bridge this information gap using a quantitative method—bibliometric analysis.