Scientific Communication on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in BRICS Countries: A Computational Scientometric Analysis.

This study aimed to assess the research growth, collaboration trends, and performance of the author, organization, and countries and to identify the trending research topics on gender equality and women empowerment research in BRICS countries. This study employed Scientometric tools to evaluate the research publications for ten years (2012- 2021). A total of 1,558 bibliographic records were downloaded from the Scopus and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Tableau statistical tools. Moreover, the network visualization and scientific mapping analysis was done using the open-source data visualization tools VOSviewer, and Biblioshiny. It was found that BRICS countries were actively involved in research on gender equality and women's empowerment in the last decade as the publication was growing by 20.45% Annual Growth Rate (AGR) and research outputs shared 16.18% of global publications. India contributed the most publications (n=683) and received the highest citations (TC=2,798), while South Africa was the most significant collaborator with different countries across the globe. The study also identified the most prolific authors, organizations, and journals based on the number of scientific publications and citations. It is indispensable to highlight that most prolific authors and organizations were affiliated with South Africa. In recent years research has been trending in topics related to women's education, women empowerment, entrepreneurship, gender equality, and sustainability. Furthermore, the study identified the most influential articles based on the citation burst. The findings of this study will benefit contemporary society, the scholarly community and other key stakeholders in the field by providing an understanding of the development and trends of research in the domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]