Bibliometric analysis of 100 highly cited papers on open educational resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) play a key role in the higher education system by reducing the financial burden on students and institutions. This study used a bibliometric approach to examine the 100 most highly cited papers on OER. The Scopus database was searched, and the 100 most highly cited articles were selected and examined using bibliometric indicators such as annual growth, authorship patterns, collaboration, and the top contributing countries, institutions, journals, and authors. The results showed that the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany were the contributing countries; 29% of the papers involved international co-authorship, and the average number of citations per paper was 85.69. While 20% of the papers were contributed by single authors, 80% were collaborative. Twenty-six papers were published in the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, with 2,299 citations, followed by Open Education, with eight papers and 592 citations. The largest numbers of highly cited papers were published in 2017, 2013, 2016, and 2020, with the highest number (13) in 2017.