Mapping the evolution of ZAKAH theme publications years 1964-2021: a bibliometric analysis

Purpose - The increasing number of papers on zakah shows that it has become an important research topic. However, few studies attempt to analyze the evolution of zakah studies which might be helpful as guidance for policymakers in creating zakah management systems and policies, for zakah management organizations administering zakah funds, for future research on related subjects and for academic actors to construct a zakah study curriculum. This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the evolution of zakah theme publications from 1964 to 2021. Design/methodology/approach - This study uses bibliometric analysis to analyze the evolution of zakah research. This study compared all Scopus-indexed journal papers to Zakah publications regarding research flow, themes, abstracts and titles. The relationships between researchers, the titles of the papers and keywords associated with “zakah” are analyzed in these publications published between 1964 and 2021. A total of 632 scientific contributions were discovered using RStudio and VOSviewer to analyze the bibliometric metadata. Findings - Based on the results, the theme of zakah has evolved from 1964 to 2021. The author emphasizes the zakah publication theme. Each affiliation and country have its conditions, management method, data sources and characteristics. The theme “zakah institutions and zakah collecting” grew in popularity between 2010 and 2021 and is projected to grow in the following years. Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan can be used as zakah development research models. In spans of zakah publications, the author with the most global citations is Wahab N.A., and the author with the most productive is Saad Raj. Research limitations/implications - Zakah publications are analyzed using the Scopus database. This study applied only Scopus index data, excluding non-Scopus, and most studies conducted in non-English languages. This conclusion indicates the issue’s importance among academic researchers and practitioners, notably on the subject of zakah. Thus, a comprehensive picture of zakah theme publications assists researchers and zakah fund institutions in making assessments, focusing on the unstudied fraction of the zakah theme. Practical implications - This research is planned to serve as a reference for future research, particularly examining the theme’s novelty. It is intended to have implications for policymakers, particularly zakah institutions, regarding funding the several zakah research issues and concentrations. Social implications - This research can guide future researchers and is expected to include parameters such as author, year and data source while analyzing zakah publications to generate new findings. Originality/value - This is probably one of few comprehensive studies that examined the evolution of the zakah theme using the Scopus-indexed database. The relevance of this paper is to provide suggestions and projections for future zakah research. Scholars should examine zakah publications by author, year and data source to gain fresh insights. Search for data sources with high-impact factors and objective metrics, then clear out irrelevant documents to improve the analysis’ quality and findings.