---
title: "Blockchain research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “blockchain” appeared in 1,748 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (448), information systems (329) and management (298)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/blockchain
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/blockchain.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “blockchain” appeared in 1,748 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (448), information systems (329) and management (298). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “blockchain”

Research on “blockchain” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “blockchain” appeared in 1,748 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in operations research (448), information systems (329) and management (298).
- 290 of them were published in 2025, against 18 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Hong Kong Polytechnic University (31), Lebanese American University (13) and University of Liverpool (13).
- The journals publishing most of them were Computers & Industrial Engineering (76), Expert Systems with Applications (61) and Technological Forecasting and Social Change (57).
- The most-cited of them is “A systematic literature review of blockchain-based applications: Current status, classification and open issues” (Telematics and Informatics, 2018), with 2,576 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 19 | 26 | 40 | 72 | 86 | 68 | 84 | 53 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 10 | 8 | 29 | 36 | 32 | 48 | 36 | 64 | 41 | 25 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 2 | 2 | 14 | 24 | 39 | 39 | 47 | 53 | 44 | 34 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 3 | 2 | 18 | 37 | 27 | 33 | 55 | 52 | 43 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 3 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 16 | 29 | 23 | 23 | 42 | 23 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 3 | 2 | 7 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 18 | 21 | 14 | 15 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 3 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 18 | 21 | 90 | 134 | 189 | 245 | 257 | 299 | 290 | 205 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Computers & Industrial Engineering](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-industrial-engineering.md) | 76 |
| 2 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 61 |
| 3 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 57 |
| 4 | [International Journal of Production Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-production-economics.md) | 37 |
| 5 | [Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-e-logistics-and-transportation-review.md) | 36 |
| 6 | [Annals of Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/annals-of-operations-research.md) | 34 |
| 7 | [Journal of Industrial Information Integration](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-industrial-information-integration.md) | 26 |
| 8 | [Electronic Markets](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/electronic-markets.md) | 24 |
| 9 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 22 |
| 10 | [Neural Computing and Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/neural-computing-and-applications.md) | 21 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 31 |
| 2 | [Lebanese American University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/lebanese-american-university.md) | 13 |
| 3 | [University of Liverpool](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-liverpool.md) | 13 |
| 4 | [Hunan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hunan-university.md) | 12 |
| 5 | [University of Surrey](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-surrey.md) | 12 |
| 6 | [NEOMA Business School](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/neoma-business-school.md) | 11 |
| 7 | [Qingdao University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/qingdao-university.md) | 11 |
| 8 | Khalifa University of Science and Technology | 10 |
| 9 | [University of Technology Sydney](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-technology-sydney.md) | 10 |
| 10 | [Chinese Academy of Sciences](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chinese-academy-of-sciences.md) | 9 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 312 |
| 2 | India | 154 |
| 3 | United States | 149 |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 133 |
| 5 | Australia | 66 |
| 6 | Italy | 64 |
| 7 | Germany | 60 |
| 8 | France | 58 |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 45 |
| 10 | Saudi Arabia | 42 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | smart contracts | 149 |
| 2 | [artificial intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/artificial-intelligence.md) | 126 |
| 3 | [Internet of Things](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/internet-of-things.md) | 116 |
| 4 | supply chain transparency | 68 |
| 5 | [digital transformation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/digital-transformation.md) | 49 |
| 6 | [supply chain resilience](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/supply-chain-resilience.md) | 49 |
| 7 | [supply chain management](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/supply-chain-management.md) | 46 |
| 8 | supply chain traceability | 46 |
| 9 | [fintech](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/fintech.md) | 45 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,576 | 27.0 | [A systematic literature review of blockchain-based applications: Current status, classification and open issues](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2018.11.006) | [Telematics and Informatics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/telematics-and-informatics.md) | 2018-11-22 | Fran Casino, Thomas K. Dasaklis, Constantinos Patsakis |
| 2 | 2,150 | 20.1 | [1 Blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management objectives](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2017.12.005) | [International Journal of Information Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management.md) | 2017-12-12 | Nir Kshetri |
| 3 | 1,891 | 30.1 | [Industry 5.0: A survey on enabling technologies and potential applications](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2021.100257) | [Journal of Industrial Information Integration](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-industrial-information-integration.md) | 2021-08-11 | Praveen Kumar Reddy Maddikunta, Quoc‐Viet Pham, B. Prabadevi et al. |
| 4 | 1,545 | 21.1 | [Blockchain technology in supply chain operations: Applications, challenges and research opportunities](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2020.102067) | [Transportation Research Part E Logistics and Transportation Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/transportation-research-part-e-logistics-and-transportation-review.md) | 2020-09-29 | Pankaj Dutta, Tsan‐Ming Choi, Surabhi Somani et al. |
| 5 | 1,488 | 19.5 | [Blockchain technology and the sustainable supply chain: Theoretically exploring adoption barriers](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107831) | [International Journal of Production Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-production-economics.md) | 2020-06-20 | Mahtab Kouhizadeh, Sara Saberi, Joseph Sarkis |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “blockchain”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/blockchain

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-blockchain,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “blockchain”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/blockchain}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).