---
title: "Metaverse research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “metaverse” appeared in 492 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (142), information systems (134) and higher education and research (56)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/metaverse
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/metaverse.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 “metaverse” appeared in 492 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (142), information systems (134) and higher education and research (56). (as of 2026-11-05)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-05T06:02:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-07 to 2026-11-05
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “metaverse”

[Browse research topics](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/directory/page/4.md)

Research on “metaverse” 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 “metaverse” appeared in 492 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in management (142), information systems (134) and higher education and research (56).
- 122 of them were published in 2025, against 0 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Kyung Hee University (13), Sungkyunkwan University (11) and Symbiosis International University (11).
- The journals publishing most of them were Technological Forecasting and Social Change (34), Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (32) and Technology in Society (28).
- The most-cited of them is “Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy” (International Journal of Information Management, 2022), with 2,754 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 21 | 46 | 42 | 19 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 38 | 44 | 26 | 14 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 16 | 19 | 9 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 18 | 7 | 7 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 17 | 15 | 3 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 115 | 157 | 122 | 61 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 34 |
| 2 | [Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-retailing-and-consumer-services.md) | 32 |
| 3 | [Technology in Society](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technology-in-society.md) | 28 |
| 4 | [Computers in Human Behavior](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-in-human-behavior.md) | 26 |
| 5 | [Education and Information Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/education-and-information-technologies.md) | 25 |
| 6 | [Decision Support Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/decision-support-systems.md) | 17 |
| 7 | [Information Technology & Tourism](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/information-technology-tourism.md) | 16 |
| 8 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 11 |
| 9 | [International Journal of Information Management Data Insights](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management-data-insights.md) | 11 |
| 10 | [Electronic Commerce Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/electronic-commerce-research.md) | 8 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Kyung Hee University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/kyung-hee-university.md) | 13 |
| 2 | [Sungkyunkwan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/sungkyunkwan-university.md) | 11 |
| 3 | Symbiosis International University | 11 |
| 4 | [Lebanese American University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/lebanese-american-university.md) | 10 |
| 5 | [Korea University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/korea-university.md) | 9 |
| 6 | Milli Savunma Üniversitesi | 8 |
| 7 | Naval Academy | 8 |
| 8 | Queen's University Belfast | 8 |
| 9 | [Swansea University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/swansea-university.md) | 8 |
| 10 | [Yuan Ze University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/yuan-ze-university.md) | 8 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 97 |
| 2 | United States | 85 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 84 |
| 4 | India | 63 |
| 5 | South Korea | 55 |
| 6 | Italy | 48 |
| 7 | France | 34 |
| 8 | Taiwan | 33 |
| 9 | Australia | 26 |
| 10 | Spain | 24 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [virtual reality](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/virtual-reality.md) | 76 |
| 2 | [blockchain](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/blockchain.md) | 44 |
| 3 | augmented reality | 42 |
| 4 | virtual worlds | 42 |
| 5 | [artificial intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/artificial-intelligence.md) | 29 |
| 6 | [technology adoption](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/technology-adoption.md) | 24 |
| 7 | avatars | 22 |
| 8 | non-fungible tokens | 22 |
| 9 | extended reality | 21 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,754 | 53.3 | [Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102542) | [International Journal of Information Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management.md) | 2022-07-15 | Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi, Laurie Hughes, Abdullah Mohammed Baabdullah et al. |
| 2 | 933 | 20.5 | [Metaverse as a disruptive technology revolutionising tourism management and marketing](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2023.104724) | [Tourism Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/tourism-management.md) | 2023-01-17 | Dimitrios Buhalis, Daniel Leung, Michael S. Lin |
| 3 | 759 | 13.1 | [Definition, roles, and potential research issues of the metaverse in education: An artificial intelligence perspective](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2022.100082) | [Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-and-education-artificial-intelligence.md) | 2022-01-01 | Gwo‐Jen Hwang, Shu‐Yun Chien |
| 4 | 679 | 14.3 | [Marketing in the Metaverse: Conceptual understanding, framework, and research agenda](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113420) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2022-11-17 | Kevin Giang Barrera, Denish Shah |
| 5 | 490 | 9.2 | [Immersive virtual reality in the age of the Metaverse: A hybrid-narrative review based on the technology affordance perspective](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsis.2022.101717) | [The Journal of Strategic Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-journal-of-strategic-information-systems.md) | 2022-06-01 | Ersin Dincelli, Alper Yayla |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Metaverse retail after the hype](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/metaverse-retail-after-the-hype.md)

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “metaverse”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/metaverse

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-metaverse,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “metaverse”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/metaverse}},
  urldate = {2026-11-05},
  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/).