A review of reverse logistics and closed loop supply chain management studies published in IJPR: a bibliometric and content analysis

Reverse Logistics and Closed Loop Supply Chain Management (RL&CLSCM) are universally recognised as two environmentally friendly practices that could help in greening conventional supply chains. The popularity of these fields of research has led to the evolution of a vast number of publications in the literature. Various journals have so far contributed to the advancement of the field, with the International Journal of Production of Research (IJPR) being one of the most prominent contributed journals. To celebrate the 55th volume anniversary of IJPR, this review study aims to investigate the studies in the area of RL&CLSCM published in IJPR. The paper presents a thorough bibliometric and content analysis of 94 studies that were published in IJPR from 2000 until July 2017. The studies initially underwent a rigorous bibliometric and mapping analysis that helped to identify their characteristics. Subsequently, the contents of the sample papers were evaluated thoroughly. The content analysis led to classification of the papers into two main categories and sub-categories, and then to rigorous identification of the papers’ attributes. The bibliometric and content analysis disclosed several research gaps that remain to be addressed in IJPR.