Carbon Costing and Digital Tools in the Construction Industry: A Global Bibliometric Analysis of Trends, Thematic Clusters, and Emerging Frontiers

This study provides a global research mapping of carbon cost and digital tools in construction, exploring publication growth, thematic patterns and research frontiers. 239 Scopus-indexed documents (2005-2026) out of a pool of 318 were analysed for this PRISMA-based bibliometric study. Selection criteria involved relevance to the subject, type of document and language. Keyword co-occurrence and clustering were analysed with VOSviewer, with Kleinberg’s burst detection and silhouette scoring to establish temporal trends. Citation, publication, geographical and source distributions were also mapped. The data set has 2,232 citations, h-index of 22 and average citations of 9.34, suggesting a burgeoning field. The trend is highly exponential, with 55.2% of papers published in 2024-2026. China is the most productive, with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands having greater citation influence. Keyword burst analysis reveals circular economy as the most prominent frontier (burst strength = 11.901; silhouette = 0.953) suggesting digital tools and circular construction are a strong fit. Other high-intensity topics include carbon emission, carbon cycle, waste management, and sustainable building, with all having near-perfect silhouette scores, suggesting tightly focused and rapidly evolving research clusters around lifecycle carbon integration. This is a bibliometric analysis of carbon costing and digital tools in the construction industry, revealing key research trends and opportunities for future digital carbon management.