Examining Reddit scholarly research: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and research agenda

Purpose This paper aims to examine the structure and dynamics of scholarly publications dealing with Reddit. The research also aims to investigate how Reddit research has evolved from 2007 to 2022. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, 1,075 Scopus documents related to Reddit research were examined using bibliometric techniques. The documents were written by 3,033 authors representing 62 nations. By so doing, Reddit research influential authors and journals, emerging trends and collaboration networks are scrutinized. Findings This study identifies the top journals publishing Reddit research as Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Journal of Medical Internet Research, PLOS ONE and Social Media and Society. Results also show that cross-cultural collaboration in Reddit research is limited, with sparse author networks, while national collaborations are driven by linguistic, cultural or geographic ties. In addition, there has been a shift in research themes from “information science” and “social computing” (2016–2018) to emerging areas like “online community” and “content analysis” (2020–2022). This surge in new topics marks a “hotspot” in Reddit research. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research represents the first application of bibliometric methods to investigate scholarly Reddit research publications.