The Future Direction on Pesantren’s Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Islamic boarding schools known as pesantren in Indonesia have grown in popularity as research in recent years. Pesantren, which continues to expand and develop due to their remarkable adaptability, became a trigger for this phenomenon (Isbah, 2020). Since its inception, pesantren has served as a democratic, integrative, humanist (Syamsul, 2018) and moderate education model in Indonesia (Nurdin et al., 2019; Syarif & Hannan, 2020). It is critical to note that research on pesantren has revealed an indigenous component that has always been emphasized: "the spirit of education" (Nilan, 2009). Additionally, multiculturalism (Raihani, 2012) is also defining characteristic of pesantren education, an example of a global Islamic education model with a local to the global paradigm. Numerous experts have been prompted to analyze pesantren, for example, Zamakhsyari Dhofier (1982), Martin Van Bruinessen (1990; 1994); Nur Cholis Madjid (1997); and KH. Abdurrahman Wahid (2001). Several of these works represent the figures who examined pesantren. On the other hand, pesantren is an appealing Islamic educational institution, not only as a repository of Muslim scholars' knowledge and reproduction but also as an icon of Islamic educational institutions that spread Islamic moderate from Indonesia to the rest of the world. Despite the abundance of academic studies on pesantren, analysis of the evolution of pesantren research remains infrequent. Moreover, academics have not measured the quantity and quality of research conducted on pesantren, especially in terms of the development of digital technology. Even though the Muslim community's engagement with the digital world is becoming a trend. Bunt called it the “Islamic Cyber Environment” (Bunt, 2009), or Mandaville's concept is called “digital Islam” (Mandaville, 1999). Digital Islam is the consequence of the Muslim community's adaption to digital media, which Eickelmen referred to as "new media" (Eickelman et al., 2003). As part of the Muslim community's attempt to spread religious knowledge, the internet has become the new public sphere. As a result, it becomes critical for observers of Islamic education to conduct a review of the development of pesantren education to serve as a reference point for future research. This article performs a bibliometric analysis using Publish or Perish and VOSviewer to ascertain research trends related to Islamic boarding schools or pesantren, covering countries, relevant authors, and keywords. Pesantren's most distinguishing feature is its capacity to challenge and combine traditional and digital education elements. Instead of being a problem, digital development makes education in pesantren even better and makes it stronger as Islam in Indonesia is widely known. This study aims to ascertain pesantren’s research trends indexed in the Scopus database. Scopus is used by most researchers worldwide. Furthermore, this research identifies which journals are the most productive, which authors publish the most, and which articles are the most cited by Islamic boarding school researchers worldwide. Finally, this work is critical, as the pesantren has become a symbol of the growth of Islamic education in Indonesia and even the world. When the trend in the growth of pesantren research is known, it will open up future subjects related to the development of pesantren and their relationship to the digital world. In the end, pesantren are no longer known as Islamic educational institutions that are famous for their traditionality but also for their modernity with the digitization of their media.

The bibliometric method is used to ascertain the trend of a study, which serves as a guideline and motivation for further research (Donthu et al., 2021), particularly in pesantren’s research (De Bakker et al., 2005), and more specifically in pesantren education subjects (de Oliveira et al., 2019; Duque Oliva et al., 2006) to create a roadmap for future research. In the beginning, the study quantified and compared the scientific output of academics, research groups, institutions, regions, and countries using measures such as the number of publications, accepted quotations, and participation in pesantren’s research. Second, identify the most prominent or relevant publications in pesantren education; third, track the evolution of Islamic education, specifically pesantren education, over time (El Mohadab et al., 2020). This current study used the Publish or Perish (PoP) application to determine Pesantren's research outputs. To support that, the VOSiewer application is also used to evaluate the data collected to establish and visualize the study patterns. The data were gathered through https://www.scimagojr.com/ to ensure that papers filtered using the PoP can be detected for the quartile quality of the journal. It takes several steps to ensure that the data is comprehensive and valid.

This article collected bibliometric data from Scopus, as of October 18, 2021. The database's results are analyzed to obtain information about the growth of publications. It collected a variety of tags, including author, title, abstract, country, citation note, and author affiliation. Between 2011 and 2021, the Scopus database produced 61 documents, 52 of which were articles and 9 of which were conference papers. The ten years were chosen to obtain more current data on research development. Table 1 summarizes the findings from the PoP application. Table 1. Pesantren's research in numbers indexed by Scopus No Metrics Data Search Results 1 Source Pesantren 2 Publication Year 2011-2021 3 papers 61 4 Citations 166 5 Cites/year 16.60 6 Cites/paper 2.86 7 Author/paper 1.00 8 h-index 7 9 g_index 11 10 hI_norm 7 11 hI_annual 0.70 12 hA-index 4 Source: Researcher’s analysis with Publish or Perish This study conducted searches on Scimago Journal Rankings (SJR) website to ensure that the journal is still indexed in Scopus at the quartile levels. SJR provides researchers to evaluate the journal's progress in terms of quality. After grouping the data, the study discovered that numerous items on the rankings are no longer indexed by quartile. Sixteen of the thirty-two journals reviewed in PoP are indexed, whereas the other sixteen are not, see table 2. Table 2. Scopus journal indexation data at Scimago Journal Rankings No Name of Journal Description Quartile SJR Publisher Country 1 Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies (IJIMS) Indexed Q1 0,2 State Islamic Institute (IAIN) Salatiga Indonesia 2 Journal of Indonesian Islam Indexed Q1 0,25 State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Ampel Surabaya Indonesia 3 Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies (QIJIS) Indexed Q1 0,19 State Islamic Institute (IAIN) Kudus Indonesia 4 Journal of Islamic Architecture Indexed Q2 0,13 Intellect Ltd United Kingdom 5 Asian EFL Journal Indexed Q2 0,27 Asian EFL Journal Press United Kingdom 6 Australian Journal of International Affairs Indexed Q2 0,38 Association for Taylor & Francis Ltd United Kingdom 7 Eurasian Journal of Educational Research Indexed Q2 0,24 Bridgewater State College United States 8 FWU Journal of Social Sciences Indexed Q2 0,49 Emerald Group Publishing Ltd United Kingdom 9 International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management Indexed Q2 0,24 Egitim Arastil Malari Turkey 10 Journal of International Women's Studies Indexed Q2 0,13 Pakistan Pakistan 11 Journal of Social Studies Education Research Indexed Q2 0,38 Taylor and Francis Ltd United Kingdom 12 Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Management (MOJEM) Indexed Q3 0,21 University of Malaya Malaysia 13 Journal of International Dental and Medical Research Indexed Q3 0,26 Ektodermal Displazi Grubu Turkey 14 Journal of Physics: Conference Series Indexed Q4 0,14 IOP Publishing Ltd United Kingdom 15 Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology Indexed Q4 0,15 Little Lion Scientific Pakistan 16 Journal of Religion and Popular Culture Indexed Q4 0,1 University of Toronto Press Canada 17 Multicultural Education & Technology Journal not yet indexed Quartile - - Emerald Group Publishing Ltd United Kingdom 18 International Journal of Innovation, Creativity, and Change not yet indexed Quartile - - Primrose Hall Publishing Group United Kingdom 19 Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists not yet indexed Quartile - - Journal for the Education of Gifted Young Scientists Turkey 20 Journal of Language Teaching and Research not yet indexed Quartile - - Academy Publisher Finland 21 Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities not indexed - - University Putera Malaysia Malaysia 22 International Journal of Engineering & Technology not yet indexed Quartile - - Science Publishing Corporation Inc United Arab Emirates 23 International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research not yet indexed Quartile - - Advanced Scientific Research India 24 Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems not yet indexed Quartile - - Institute of Advanced Scientific Research United States 25 International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology not yet indexed Quartile - - Science and Engineering Research Support Society Australia 26 International Journal of Engineering and Technology (UAE) not yet indexed Quartile - - Science Publishing Corporation Inc United Arab Emirates 27 Universal Journal of Educational Research not yet indexed Quartile - - Horizon Research Publishing United States 28 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering not yet indexed Quartile - - Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication India 29 Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences not yet indexed Quartile - - Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences Pakistan 30 Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences not yet indexed Quartile - - MCSER Mediteranian Centre of Social and Education Research Italy 31 Journal of Language and Literature not yet indexed Quartile - - Progress IPS LLC Azerbaijan 32 Journal of Applied Sciences Research not yet indexed Quartile - - INSInet Publication Pakistan Source: Researcher’s analysis with scimagojr.com The data obtained from the PoP then were analyzed using the VOSviewer to determine research trends. Numerous keywords, including pesantren, Indonesia, Islamic boarding school, and education, emerged as the most frequently used themes. Figure.1 shows the results. Figure 1. Density Visualization of Pesantren Research on Scopus. Source: Researcher’s VOS Viewer analysis The study then examined the growth of research on pesantren from 2011 to 2021. According to the data, only two studies on pesantren were published in 2011 (Asrohah, 2011; Saputro, 2011). In 2012, there was an increase, as evidenced by three studies (Hamid, 2012; Ismah, 2012; Izfanna, 2012). Between 2013 and 2016, Scopus indexed no pesantren. It then increased to eight papers in 2018 before reaching a peak of 18 articles in 2019 (Anam, 2019; Bin-Tahir, 2019; Hudaefi, 2019; Humaisi, 2019; Indra, 2019; Ma’arif, 2019; Machfudz, 2019; Maisyaroh, 2019; Masruhan, 2019; Mukhibat & Ghafar, 2019; Prabamurti, 2019; Putro, 2019). Figure 2 illustrates the data. It was observed some interesting statistics in which the year 2019 had witnessed a dramatic increase in the amount of study conducted on pesantren. Using data from this year, the pesantren study theme has begun to assess its relationship to technological advancements. For instance, Syakroni's (2019) research on the Internet of Things (IoT), or Mukhibbat & Ghafar's virtual boarding school (2019). Additionally, the Ministry of Religion of Indonesia launched the theme of religious moderation this year (RI, 2019), and this resulted in other studies undertaken by Syamsul Ma'arif (2019) and Jamil (2019). In 2019, these two factors of religious moderation and digitalization drove an increasing number of research on pesantren.Figure 2. Growth of Publication of Pesantren’s Research on Scopus Source: Researcher’s analysis from Scopus with Publish or Perish In terms of countries, it was discovered that ten countries published research on Islamic boarding schools or pesantren. Australia, Azerbaijan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States are among these countries, see figure 3. Figure 3. Top Countries that publish Pesantren’s Research on Scopus Source: Researcher’s analysis from Scopus with Publish or Perish Other results showed that six journals indexed by Scopus have published the most research on Islamic boarding schools. Journal of Physics: Conference Series contributed the most papers with eight articles. Qudus International Journal of Islamic Studies and Journal of Indonesian Islam published five articles, followed by additional publications in other journals. Figure 4 illustrates this data Figure 4. Top Journals that have to publish Pesantren’s Research indexed by Scopus Source: Researcher’s analysis from Scopus with Publish or Perish A citation shows contributions from a paper. This study shows the ten most frequently cited articles from Scopus. SZ Bin Tahir became the author with the most citations, with 22 in his first article (Tahir, 2015), 15 in his second article (Tahir, 2017), and 7 in his third article (Bin Tahir, 2019). Syamsul Ma'arif (2018), D. Izfanna, and NA Hisham (Izfanna, 2012) follow 17 citations each. Table 3 shows this data. Table 3. Top 10 cited rank articles No Name of Author Title Journal Year Cites Type 1 Saidna Zulfiqar bin Tahir Multilingual behavior of Pesantren IMMIM students in Makassar Asian EFL Journal 2015 22 Article 2 Syamsul Ma'arif Education as a Foundation of Humanity: Learning from the Pedagogy of Pesantren in Indonesia Journal of Social Studies Education Research 2018 17 Article 3 D. Izfanna; NA Hisyam A comprehensive approach in developing akhlaq A case study on the implementation of character education at Pondok Pesantren Darunnajah Multicultural Education & Technology Journal 2012 17 Article 4 Saidna Zulfikar Bin Tahir Multilingual teaching and learning at Pesantren Schools in Indonesia Asian EFL Journal/ Professional Teaching Articles/ August 2015, Issue 86. Pp. 45-64 2017 15 Article Munifah; Huda, Syamsul; Hamida, Ulfi Dina; Subandi; Syazalie, Muhamad; Umam, Rofiqul The Use of Management Strategies to Attract the Public's Interest in Pesantren: A New Model for Pesantren Dynamics Study International Journal of Innovation, Creativity, and Change 2019 8 Article 6 Syakroni, Agus; Zamroni; Muali, Chusnul; Baharun, Hasan; Sunarto, MZ ; Musthofa, Bisri; Wijaya, Muallim Motivation And Learning Outcomes Through The Internet Of Things; Learning In Pesantren Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2019 8 Conference paper 7 FA, Hudaefi; N, Heryani The practice of local economic development and Maqāṣid al-Sharī 'ah: Evidence from a Pesantren in West Java, Indonesia International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management 2019 8 Article 8 Saidna Zulfiqar Bin-Tahir; Suriaman, Aminah; Rinantanti, Yulini Designing English Syllabus for Multilingual Students at Pesantren Schools Asian EFL Journal 2019 7 Article 9 S Ni'am Pesantren: the miniature of moderate Islam in Indonesia Indonesian Journal of Islam and Muslim Societies 2015 7 Article 10 B Smith Stealing women, stealing men: co-creating cultures of polygamy in a pesantren community in eastern Indonesia Journal of International Women's Studies 2014 7 Article Source: Researchers’ Analysis with Publish or Perish

It would be fascinating to research the evolution of pesantren and their relationship to digital technology in further detail. However, few researchers have focused exclusively on pesantren in this sector. In fact, based on the data, the Scopus database currently indexes only 61 articles related to Pesantren. Indonesia, where the pesantren term originated, must be more productive in producing pesantren-related works than the Scopus index. Universities' journals, particularly those with Scopus indexation, must constantly be encouraged to provide a forum for researchers to share their ideas on the subject and digital advancements. Nevertheless, some fascinating topics such as Santri Online, Digital Leadership of Kiai, Women Ulama in the Digital Age, and Virtual Pesantren provide a roadmap for future research. These topics began to be explored by Indonesian researchers and were also initially published in domestic journals. Pesantren's study can also incorporate novel methodologies like nethnography to provide a new perspective on pesantren.