A Scientometric Analysis of Inventory Routing Problem Literature with Special Emphasis in Stochastic and Dynamic Version

The popularity and rapid development of Inventory Routing Problem as an area of research has led to a huge amount of publications containing the achieved knowledge. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of inventory routing problems that include heuristics, operation research and management science, a scientometric study of the area should shed some light on the topic. Empirically studying the evolution of the research on this field will give a view about groups of researchers, their research productivity and impact, all that providing a better understanding of trends. While scientometric has a long tradition in many fields, we identify a lack of comprehensive studies in the areas of inventory routing. Based on bibliographic databases (Scopus and Web of Science), this study applies a scientometric method to empirically analyze the evolution and state of the Inventory Routing Problem research. We focus on analyzing variants of the problems where the inventory is revised periodically and the decision making is affected by the dynamic variation of the demand that is revealed as time goes by in the planning horizon. The results of this study provide a better understanding of patterns, trends and other important factors as a basis for directing research activities, sharing knowledge and collaborating in the operations research area. It also makes reference to the transversal areas such as the mathematics and computer science