Mapping Two Decades of Negligence Law: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis

This study provides a bibliometric assessment of research trends on negligence and the law over the past two decades, offering an empirical overview of how scholarly attention to this foundational area of tort has evolved. Although negligence remains a central pillar of legal liability, existing literature has become increasingly fragmented across jurisdictions and interdisciplinary perspectives, creating a need for an integrated mapping of its intellectual development. To address this gap, data were collected using Scopus advanced searching, yielding a final dataset of 508 publications. The dataset was cleaned and harmonised using OpenRefine to ensure accuracy and consistency, while descriptive statistics and graphical outputs were generated through the Scopus Analyzer. Network structures including co-authorship, keyword cooccurrence, and citation patterns were visualised using VOSviewer to identify thematic clusters, influential contributors, and emerging research fronts. The numerical results reveal notable growth in publication volume, a concentration of contributions from common law jurisdictions, and the emergence of new thematic directions such as patient autonomy, professional accountability, and comparative negligence frameworks. Co-occurrence mapping shows the dominance of core concepts including duty of care, standard of care, causation, and medical negligence, while collaboration analysis highlights relatively modest but increasing international partnerships. Overall, the findings underscore both the doctrinal continuity and conceptual diversification of negligence scholarship, reflecting the field’s responsiveness to evolving social, technological, and regulatory conditions. This study not only consolidates two decades of research but also provides a structured foundation for future inquiry by identifying influential themes, underexplored areas, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

negligence, law, tort

1. Al Fikri, M. A. (2022). Implementation of Strict Liability by Companies in Cases of Environmental Damage in Indonesia: An Overview of State Administrative Law in Indonesia. Indonesian State Law Review, 5(2), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.15294/islrev.v5i2.47460 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. Al-Khoury, A., Hussein, S. A., Abdulwhab, M., Aljuboori, Z. M., Haddad, H., Ali, M. A., Abed, I. A., & Flayyih, H. H. (2022). Intellectual Capital History and Trends: A Bibliometric Analysis Using Scopus Database. Sustainability (Switzerland), 14(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/su141811615 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Alves, J. L., Borges, I. B., & De Nadae, J. (2021). Sustainability in complex projects of civil construction: Bibliometric and bibliographic review. Gestao e Producao, 28(4). https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9649-2020v28e5389 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. Appio, F. P., Cesaroni, F., & Di Minin, A. (2014). Visualizing the structure and bridges of the intellectual property management and strategy literature: a document co-citation analysis. Scientometrics, 101(1), 623–661. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1329-0 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. Assyakur, D. S., & Rosa, E. M. (2022). Spiritual Leadership in Healthcare: A Bibliometric Analysis. Jurnal Aisyah : Jurnal Ilmu Kesehatan, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.30604/jika.v7i2.914 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. Bagaric, M., & Erbacher, S. (2011). Causation in negligence: from anti-jurisprudence to principle-individual responsibility as the cornerstone for the attribution of liability. Journal of Law and Medicine, 18(4), 759–772. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-80053328363&partnerID=40&md5=15dcd555500dc1d6ffa466d0fcf89450 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Beever, A. (2007). Rediscovering the Law of Negligence. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85195734687&partnerID=40&md5=afe2fe796a6447278837270252a6ee5f [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. Ben-Shahar, O., & Porat, A. (2016). Personalizing negligence law. New York University Law Review, 91(3), 627–688. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84978747025&partnerID=40&md5=f56277ea023dfa21394531a84850c67d [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Bismark, M. M., Gogos, A. J., McCombe, D., Clark, R. B., Gruen, R. L., & Studdert, D. M. (2012). Legal disputes over informed consent for cosmetic procedures: A descriptive study of negligence claims and complaints in Australia. Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, 65(11), 1506–1512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjps.2012.05.004 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. Chan, G. K. Y. (2025). AI in healthcare: Regulatory guidelines and judge-made negligence principles for AI implementers. Medical Law International. https://doi.org/10.1177/09685332251362405 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. di Stefano, G., Peteraf, M., & Veronay, G. (2010). Dynamic capabilities deconstructed: A bibliographic investigation into the origins, development, and future directions of the research domain. Industrial and Corporate Change, 19(4), 1187–1204. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtq027 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J., & Davarzani, H. (2015). Green supply chain management: A review and bibliometric analysis. In International Journal of Production Economics (Vol. 162, pp. 101–114). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2015.01.003 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. Gu, D., Li, T., Wang, X., Yang, X., & Yu, Z. (2019). Visualizing the intellectual structure and evolution of electronic health and telemedicine research. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2019.08.007 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. Hodgson, J. (2009). Modern negligence law: Contribution of the medical cases. British Journal of Nursing (Mark Allen Publishing), 18(21), 1320–1321. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2009.18.21.45365 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Khiste, G. P., & Paithankar, R. R. (2017). Analysis of Bibliometric term in Scopus. International Research Journal, 01(32), 78–83. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. King, M. (2021). The Boundaries of Negligence. In Agency, Negligence and Responsibility (pp. 136–153). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108628228.010 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. Manning, J. (2007). Factual causation in medical negligence. Journal of Law and Medicine, 15(3), 337–355. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-40349094605&partnerID=40&md5=d40a6b721273bd84df71c76288ca2f37 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. Montanari Vergallo, G. M. (2014). Negligence and embryo protection: a new frontier for medical law? Medicine and Law, 33(1), 2–13. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84904251382&partnerID=40&md5=0551ad025195d52a4e16621b99cfefd2 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Norchaya Talib. (2021). Law of Torts in Malaysia. Sweet & Maxwell. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. Orr, T. J. (2024). Negligence. In Encyclopedia of Sport Management, Second Edition (pp. 647– 648). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035317189.ch376 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Pandit, M. S., & Pandit, S. (2009). Medical negligence: Coverage of the profession, duties, ethics, case law, and enlightened defense - A legal perspective. Indian Journal of Urology, 25(3), 372–378. https://doi.org/10.4103/0970-1591.56206 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. Razman, M. R., Jahi, J. M., Zakaria, S. Z. S., Hadi, A. S., Arifin, K., Aiyub, K., & Awang, A. (2012a). The law of negligence towards enviromnental awareness and snstainability in Malaysia. Social Sciences (Pakistan), 7(5), 653–658. https://doi.org/10.3923/sscience.2012.653.658 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. Razman, M. R., Jahi, J. M., Zakaria, S. Z. S., Hadi, A. S., Arifin, K., Aiyub, K., & Awang, A. (2012b). The law of negligence towards enviromnental awareness and snstainability in Malaysia. Social Sciences (Pakistan), 7(5), 653–658. https://doi.org/10.3923/sscience.2012.653.658 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. Shrestha, K., Joshi, J., & Yadav, D. (2025). Medical Negligence and Duty of Care in Nepal: A Legal and Ethical Analysis. Journal of the Nepal Medical Association, 63(288), 641–643. https://doi.org/10.31729/jnma.9171 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

25. Uma, P. K., Ramani, P., Sherlin, H. J., Sukumaran, S., Jayaraj, G., Don, K. R., & Santhanam, A. (2020). Knowledge about legal aspects of medical negligence in India among dentists-a questionnaire survey. Medico-Legal Update, 20(1), 111–115. https://doi.org/10.37506/v20/il/2020/mlu/194305 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

26. Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2007). Bibliometric mapping of the computational intelligence field. International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowldege-Based Systems, 15(5), 625– 645. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218488507004911 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

27. van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

28. van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2017). Citation-based clustering of publications using CitNetExplorer and VOSviewer. Scientometrics, 111(2), 1053–1070. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-017-2300-7 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

29. Verbeek, A., Debackere, K., Luwel, M., & Zimmermann, E. (2002). Measuring progress and evolution in science and technology - I: The multiple uses of bibliometric indicators. International Journal of Management Reviews, 4(2), 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2370.00083 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

30. Wu, Y. C. J., & Wu, T. (2017). A decade of entrepreneurship education in the Asia Pacific for future directions in theory and practice. In Management Decision (Vol. 55, Issue 7, pp. 1333–1350). https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2017-0518 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Conflict of Law in the Safeguarding of Malaysian Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Way Forward
• Alternative Dispute Resolution in India: A Brief Overview Justice Delayed is Justice Denied. - William E. Gladstone
• The Role of Museums in Safeguarding Cultural Heritage Rights: Balancing Access and Repatriation
• An Evaluation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights' Significance and Application in Nigeria
• The Role of International Law in Shaping National Immigration Policies.