Geospatial information research in the Philippines: a bibliometric analysis

Geospatial information science is the scientific discipline that focuses on the development and application of information technologies to address different societal and environmental problems. In the Philippines, there is limited information on the progress and utilization of geospatial techniques and tools. This study assessed the trends in geospatial information research in the country using bibliometric analysis of two (2) major scientific databases (i.e. Web of Science and Scopus). Results showed that around 55% of the initial 4,184 search entries from the two (2) scientific databases were discarded while further reducing the bibliographic records to 1,869. In addition, the analysis revealed that geospatial information research has grown tremendously in the Philippines in the last four (4) decades (1978–2024) with an annual growth rate of 16%. Funding from both local and international sources, along with active collaboration facilitated this trend. The Department of Science and Technology has funded the most research publications, while internationally, the Japanese government and its scientists provided significant support through funding, mentoring, and research collaborations. Among local universities, the University of the Philippines (UP) System has produced the most research publications in geospatial information research compared to other local universities and state colleges. The bibliographic records also revealed that geospatial information was minimally explored in the social sciences compared to research areas such as engineering, life sciences, and physical sciences. Hence, the recommendation is to adopt the old concept of spatially integrated social sciences research in the Philippines.