THE HUMAN DIMENSION OF NON-DESTRUCTIVE TESTING: A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJMOE.831001Keywords:
Bibliometric Analysis, Certification, Competence Assurance, Non-Destructive Testing, TrainingAbstract
Non-destructive testing (NDT) is an essential inspection and safety assurance practice in industries where structural integrity and failure prevention are critical. Although NDT research has been strongly influenced by defect detection, automation, digital inspection, and NDE 4.0, the human dimension remains less systematically mapped. This study examines how the human-dimension components of NDT practice are positioned within the broader NDT research landscape. A bibliometric analysis was conducted using 616 Scopus-indexed documents published between 1967 and 2026, refined from an initial search of 712 records. VOSviewer, Biblioshiny, biblioMagika, and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze publication trends, source productivity, author and country contributions, thematic structures, and keyword co-occurrence patterns. The findings show gradual growth in human-dimension NDT research, with stronger visibility after 2010. The dataset recorded 2,917 citations, an average of 4.74 citations per publication, and an overall h-index of 25. Thematic mapping shows that training, certification, and personnel competence occupy a central but developing position, while inspection performance appears as a basic theme, and inspection reliability, probability of detection, and human factors remain niche themes. The human dimension of NDT is visible but fragmented. The study contributes by reframing NDT research from a technology-dominant inspection perspective to a competence-assurance perspective, where personnel development, certification practice, professional competence, and reliable inspection outcomes are treated as interconnected elements of NDT reliability.
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