A bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed publications on domino effects in the process industry

Abstract

The topic of domino effects in the process industry started to receive attention in risk analysis and safety assessment studies over the last two decades. The popularity of the topic is partly due to the occurrence of catastrophic industrial accidents involving domino effects, e.g., the LPG-induced domino effects in Mexico City in 1984, and partly due to legislation (e.g. the so-called “Seveso Directives”), mandating the owners and managers of chemical plants to take the likelihood of domino effects into account when contemplating the prevention/mitigation of major accidents. The present study aims to take advantage of state-of-the-art bibliometric analysis tools to investigate the trend, the geographical and the authorial distributions of scientific papers on domino effects published in peer-reviewed journals around the globe. The result of this study can be used to identify the most influential research institutes and authors contributing to the domain of domino effects in the chemical industry.