Review of Reverse Logistics and Closed-Loop Supply Chain Research

This document presents a comprehensive literature review focusing on reverse logistics (RL) and closed-loop supply chains (CLSC). The review analyzes publications, particularly those within the Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP), to identify key trends, research gaps, and future directions. It examines the evolution of RL and CLSC, emphasizing their importance in modern industries due to environmental concerns and economic benefits. The review categorizes and evaluates related papers, offering a systematic view of past work and suggesting opportunities for new research. It covers various aspects, including consumer return practices, CLSC models, decision variables, case studies, and geographical distributions of authors, providing a valuable framework for understanding the current state and future potential of RL and CLSC research.

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A review of Reverse Logistics and Closed-Loop Supply Chains: A Journal of
Cleaner Production Focus
Article in Journal of Cleaner Production · April 2016
DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.126
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Kannan Govindan
University of Southern Denmark
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Hamed Soleimani
Qazvin Islamic Azad University
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A review of reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chains: a Journal
of Cleaner Production focus
Kannan Govindana, * , Hamed Soleimanib
a Centre for Sustainable Engineering Operations Management, Department of Technology and Innovation, University of Southern Denmark, Odense M 5230,
Denmark
b Faculty of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering,Qazvin Branch,Islamic Azad University (IAU),Qazvin,Iran
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 19 January 2016
Received in revised form
24 February 2016
Accepted 15 March 2016
Available online 20 April 2016
Keywords:
Survey
Review
Evaluation study
Supply chain management
Reverse logistics
Closed-loop supply chains
a b s t r a c t
Today,the task of developing reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chains in both developed and
developing industries is accepted as a vital need in our societies.The growing interest in reverse issues
can be clearly seen in the large number of publications, especially the ones that consider case studies in
various industries.Based on its missions,Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP) is one of the most active
journals in this field. Therefore, a comprehensive review is undertaken of the publications in the field of
reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chains; the selection process is based on the articles accepted
online in the Journal of Cleaner Production. The aim of this paper is to review, categorize, and evaluate th
related papers in order to provide a systematic view of past work and an appropriate vision for future
study.A total of 83 accepted online papers up to 31 December 2014 have been selected and reviewed.
The selected papers are then analyzed based on their content and the appropriate developed categories
The results clarify the main trends in reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain subjects for the
Journal of Cleaner Production and the evaluations reveal some suggested opportunities for new direction
of research for the journal.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The classic supply chain approach,now called the forward
supply chain,does not feel any responsibility for end-of-life (EOL)
products.Then,the reverse supply chain,or reverse logistics (RL),
tries to account for EOL products in the most environmentally-
friendly manner possible. The evolution of the supply chains
leads to an integrated approach of considering both forward and
reverse supply chains simultaneously populated as closed-loop
supply chain (CLSC).
Based on the American Reverse Logistics Executive Council,
reverse logistics is defined as “The process of planning, implementing,
and controlling the efficient,cost effective flow of raw materials,in-
process inventory,finished goods and related information from the
point of consumption to the point of origin for the purpose of recap-
turing value or proper disposal” (Rogers and Tibben-Lembke, 1998).
On the other hand, the new and business-perspective type of CLSC
definition can be found in Guide and Van Wassenhove (2009) as
follows: “the design,control,and operation of a system to maximize
value creation over the entire life cycle ofa product with dynamic
recovery ofvalue from different types and volumes ofreturns over
time.” In both ofthe two mentioned types ofsupply chain,EOL
products play a vital role.They are collected from customers and
the appropriated processes are then performed,such as repairing,
disassembling,remanufacturing,recycling,and disposing of them
in an environmentally sensitive manner (Soleimaniand Kannan,
2015).Indeed, consumer returns are an important measure in
CLSCs because they define effective strategies for collecting the
returns.For example,some brands in the fashion industry allow
customers to return mass customization fashion products for a full
refund minus a service charge (Choi,2013).Consequently,many
papers in RL and CLSC try to investigate the importance of con-
sumers'return practices and effective models for collecting used
products (Choi et al.,2013).
The main duties of a closed-loop supply chain are twofold: first,
it is responsible for value-added processes in order to cover cus-
tomers' demands (as before) and second, it tries to collect the EOL
products (called return products) from customers and determine
the best ways to account for them. A general form of CLSC is* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [e-mail] (K.Govindan).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
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j o u r n a lhomepage: w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / j c l e p r o
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Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384

illustrated in Fig.1 which contains both forward (supplying raw
materials, processing, assembling, distributing/retailing, and
consuming) and reverse (repairing,reconditioning,remanufactur-
ing, recycling, and disposing) supply chain processes
simultaneously.
Today, only a few countries (primarily those in the third world)
have not already adopted regulations ofclosing the loop for in-
dustries such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
Directive 2002/96/EC became European law in 2003,and now
many countries obey it. Furthermore, economic reasons are
powerful actuators for practitioners to consider RL and CLSC (Guide
and Van Wassenhove,2009).Consequently,the importance of the
RL and CLSC is drastically growing both in industries and for re-
searchers. Many journals are trying to focus on RL/CLSC subjects in
both practical implementations and theories. Govindan et al. (2015)
present a significant portion of the field of growing interests in RL/
CLSC in academia in their recent review of 382 related publications.
The results of their paper introduce the Journal of Cleaner Produc-
tion (JCP) as one of the most active journals in the field of RL/CLSC.
JCP includes 3% of allpapers,so it is ranked among the top five
journals in terms of the number of publications on RL/CLSC.This
paper analyzes the interesting subjects of RL and CLSC and selects
JCP for its ranking as a leading journalin the mentioned fields.
Other similar review and partial review papers also emphasize the
critical subject of RL/CLSC,and these will be discussed in the next
section.
Over the past decades,JCP has covered substantial research in
the fields of RL and CLSC with the goalof elevating the practical
benefits of closing the loop both for industries and society.In thefield of review papers,the most common approach is to consider
contributions from a range of journals in the selected field; the idea
of focusing on one specific journal is somehow new. While we canfind review-based papers in the important field of RL/CLSC in
various journals, there is no attempt in focusing on just one journal
in order to analyze the trends for readers,researchers,and man-
agers of that journal.This approach does not give a holistic view
such as generalreview papers but it can help to elicit future di-
rections of research for a journal. Finally, the lack of review papers
that concentrate on a specific journal (such as JCP) is clearly missing
in the published literature.Such review studies for a specific jour-
nal can give researchers and journalmanagers a comprehensive
overview of the past and a useful insight into future research op-
portunities.They both can exploit the results: researchers can
elevate the scope of research through identified gaps,and journal
managers can revise or expand journal strategies.The mentioned
review studies have not been undertaken for JCP yet; thus, it seems
a holistic overview of the past publications in the RL/CLSC is
needed.To the best of our knowledge,no similar papers in the
literature for supply chain management, reverse supply chain, and
closed-loop supply chains exist,so this paper can be innovative in
introducing such specific review approaches.
To cover the mentioned gap,the current paper seeks to review
the publications in the RL and CLSC fields until the end of 2014 in
JCP.The methodology of the paper is presented here.The search
engine is the main website of the publisher1 while applying the JCPfilter. The search keyword is “supply chain,” and then the results are
limited to “reverse” or “closed.” The search is undertaken on two
different dates. First, on 18 July 2013 the first search is undertaken
and 374 related papers are selected.Then, those papers are exam-
ined for their relevance to the focus areas of RL and CLSC,and 66
papers are selected for detailed analysis and categorization.We
implement criteria to choose those that included any research
about reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain in any fields.
The second search is performed at the end of 2014,and we utilize
the same search process to update the publications and to cover the
new papers. For this level, 17 papers are selected out of more than
60; they are analyzed and added to the others. The complete
collection of selected papers is then reviewed, categorized,
analyzed, and summarized in the various types of views. Based on
the predetermined categories which will be discussed in the next
sections,the information of the papers is analyzed through struc-
tured datasheets in Microsoft Excel software.The results are then
summarized in the associated charts and tables which could sug-
gest future directions of research.It should be mentioned that the
categories suggested in this paper are based on a detailed analysis
of the content of the reviewed publications. Indeed, after reviewing
all papers and studying the various subjects of the research,the
categories are set; then, the papers are analyzed in the appropriate
categories.Finally,the aim of this research is to provide a useful
framework for past research in detail and to offer some guides for
future directions of study.
The rest of the paper is prepared as follows: Section 2 provides a
literature review concentrating on review papers in RL/CLSC.Sec-
tion 3 presents the general trends in RL/CLSC as found in JCP.Sec-
tion 4 evaluates the main problems considered in the publications
Fig. 1. A general illustration of a CLSC (Khor and Udin,2012).
1 Elsevier publisher: www.sciencedirect.com.
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384372

in detail. The case studies and investigated industries are discussed
in Section 5.Decision variables are demonstrated in Section 6.An
analysis of the geographical distributions of the authors and a ci-
tations report of the publications is presented in Section 7 and
Section 8 respectively.Finally, conclusions and future research
suggestions are clarified in Section 9.
2. Literature review
Review papers play a primary role in categorizing and analyzing
the past,current,and future trends in a field of science (Webster
and Watson,2002).In RL/CLSC,we can find excellent review pa-
pers with special objectives covering a variety of aspects. Govindan
et al. (2015) reviewed 382 papers in RL/CLSC in order to analyze the
publications between January 2007 and March 2013. They present
various categorizations ofthe publications based on the subject,
modeling approach,solution methodologies,decision variables,
and so forth. They cover RL and CLSC simultaneously in all strategic,
tactical,and operationalissues including 12 related papers from
JCP.
Guide and Van Wassenhove (2009) concentrate on the strong
business perspective of the closed-loop supply chain and illustrate
the growing profits of CLSC/RL over the past 15 years. They make afive-phase framework to picture the growth trends ofCLSC/RL
including “the golden age of remanufacturing,from remanu-
facturing to valuing the reverse logistics process,coordinating the
reverse supply chain,closing the loop,and prices and markets.”
Canan Savaskan et al.(2004) address the criticalissue of reverse
channel structure in order to close the loop of a supply chain with
product remanufacturing. The mentioned paper is not a real review
paper but presents some of the suggested models based on the vast
area of publications in the field of coordination.
In an admirable review paper, Souza (2013)focuses on the
strategic and tactical issues (ignoring operational) such as network
configurations and dispositioning decisions.The future research
area is discussed in each topic. A novel mathematical-based
approach is a distinguishing point of this research.Indeed, he
proposes a mathematicalframework for each part of the review
sections.Besides,Akçali and Cetinkaya (2011) review the quanti-
tative models for inventory and production planning in CLSC until
2009. They segmentstochastic and deterministic modeling ap-
proaches based on demand and return parameters and then make
the analyses.
In RL review papers, Pokharel and Mutha (2009) focus on
reverse logistics publications through their review of7 books, 6
conference proceedings,and 151 journal publications including
some related special issues until 2008. They mention mathematical
modeling in RL, case study researches, and solution methodologies
in order to identify future opportunities in RL. Sasikumar and
Kannan present two papers in the review of RL subjects.One of
them is a research paper in EOL product recovery and inventory
management publications until 2008, and the second is a review of
170 papers in the reverse distribution studies until 2009
(Sasikumar and Kannan, 2008a, 2008b). Finally, they complete their
series of review studies in RL through reviewing 543 papers in the
period of 1967e2008 (Sasikumar and Kannan, 2009).
Further, Chanintrakulet al. (2009) present a review of the
publications in RL during the period of 2000e2008 that focuses on
quantitative researches.The main problem of their research is
network design and they try to illustrate future directions of
research based on the past studies.De Brito et al.(2005) concen-
trate on case studies and their success to review more than 60 case
studies in RL.They use some propositions and unanswered ques-
tions to predict future research.Chan et al.(2010) demonstrate a
comprehensive literature review for the researches in just-in-time
and analyze those impacts to RL.Rubio et al.(2008) present a re-
view in production and operations management studies in RL that
includes 186 papers between 1995 and 2005.
The abovementioned publications prove the importance of the
review papers because they help to signify research directions.
Based on the review papers, some useful categorizations of the past
publications are analytically presented; on the other hand,some
available areas of future research are clarified.Among review and
partial review papers,some journal-based review papers are also
needed.This approach is a new one in the field of review papers.
However, such specific review papers can target the main policy of
the journal in a research field and can help readers and authors infinding the practicalmanner of the journal.It also helps journal
managersin analyzing both past trends and future strategies
(changing, reducing, or reinforcing some aspects of the papers). To
the best of our knowledge,the proposed necessary approach in
review papers has not yet been pursued in the literature.
Finally,this paper tries to emphasize the primary role for the
Journal of Cleaner Production in the fields of RL and CLSC. In order to
cover this mission,83 papers are selected and reviewed and an
analysis of some of the publications is presented.In addition,we
identify and suggest future research areas.
3. General trends in number of publication
RL and CLSC are two of the most popular fields of research in
supply chain management (SCM) studies.For the first step,it is
needed to understand some general statistics of the RL/CLSC pub-
lications in JCP. Fig. 2 illustrates the selected 83 papers in two mainfields of RL and CLSC based on the publication year.
As shown in Fig.2, there are 69 RL papers and 14 CLSC papers
out of the 83 published in JCP from 2001 untilthe end of 2014.
Clearly,incremental trends can be seen for both RL and CLSC pa-
pers, especially in recent years. A greater concentration in RL
studies exists,as compared to CLSC.That prevalence can be easily
observed in the figure likely because RL considers more technical
issues. To delve more deeply, Fig. 3 identifies the various subjects of
RL research by quantity.
The subject areas of RL classified in Fig.3 range from general
concepts of RL, to remanufacturing, waste management,and
recycling activities.It is interesting to know that the number of
publications in general concepts of RL and remanufacturing indi-
vidually is more than all publications in the CLSC subjectarea.
Details of the studies in the RL and CLSC by allresearchers are
presented in Table 1.The mentioned table tries to classify the 83
papers of RL/CLSC published in JCP based on the main subjects of
Figs.2 and 3.
The information of Table 1 categorizes all 83 papers into main
subjects of CLSC and RL types. The vast area of publications in RL in
various categories can be clearly seen in Table 1which clarifies the
concentrations of JCP authors in RL fields.
4. Categorizations of the main problems in RL/CLSC
RL and CLSC cover various fields of research,and each journal
may play a specific role in the knowledge base due to its preferred
strategies.With JCP,all 83 selected papers in RL/CLSC are catego-
rized based on the main problem of the studies.A fast look of the
categorization of the studies in JCP is presented in Fig. 4. The figure
contains the main fields of research and includes the number of
publications in each field.
Fig. 4 presents the various types of research in RL/CLSC for 83
selected papers from JCP.This figure may lead researchers to pop-
ular areas of study and consequently to the research gaps of the
future. As can be seen in Fig. 4,there are various types of research
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384 373

Fig. 2. The number of publications in RL/CLSC in JCP and the trends.
Fig. 3. Various subjects in reverse logistics (RL) studies.
Table 1
Distribution of the publications in JCP based on the research fields in RL and CLSC.
Main subject Publications
CLSC Govindan et al.(2013); €Ozkır and Bas¸lıgil (2013); Georgiadis and Besiou (2008); Fahimnia et al.(2013);
Rashid et al.(2013); Subramoniam et al.(2010); Schultmann et al. (2004); Pigosso et al.(2010);
Huysveld et al.(2013); Qiang (2015); Kumar and Rahman (2014); Low et al. (2014);
Jimenez-Parra et al. (2014); Corum et al. (2014).
RL: general Mafakheri and Nasiri (2013); Nikolaou et al. (2013); Bai and Sarkis (2013); El korchi and Millet (2011);
Gehin et al.(2008); Giannetti et al.(2013); Pialot et al.(2012); Ortegon et al.(2013); Silva et al.(2013);
Zhu and Geng (2013); Matsumoto (2009); Hojas Baenas et al.(2011) ; Chen and Sheu (2013);
Blume and Walther (2013); Grimes-Casey et al. (2007); Jefferies et al.(2012).
RL: remanufacturing Subramoniam et al.(2009); Rathore et al. (2011); Saavedra et al.(2013); Jiang et al.(2011);
Subramoniam et al.(2013); €Ostlin et al.(2009); Mont et al.(2006); Hatcher et al.(2011);
Du et al.(2012); Kerr and Ryan (2001); Abdulrahman et al.(2015); Xia et al.(2015) ;
Tian et al.(2014); Goodall et al.(2014); Chen et al.(2014).
RL: waste management Dwivedy and Mittal (2012); Zeng et al.(2013); Queiruga et al.(2012); Ng et al.(2012);
Willison and C^ote (2009); Lin et al.(2012); Cristobal Andrade et al. (2012); Mumtaz et al. (2010);
Hu et al.(2011); Salmi and Wierink (2011); Ning et al.(2013); Kurdve et al.(2015); Song et al.(2015).
RL: recycling Simpson (2012); Ravi (2012); Ling and Poon (2012); Blengini et al. (2012); Binnemans et al. (2013);
Forslind (2005); Ohnishi et al. (2012); Ding et al.(2013); C^andido et al.(2011);
Demirel et al. (2016); Murakami et al. (2015).
RL: reuse Matsumoto (2010); Dindarian et al. (2012); French (2008); McKenna et al.(2013); Amelia et al.(2009);
Gutterres et al.(2010); Gelbmann and Hammerl (2014).
RL: recovery Seitz (2007); White et al.(2003); Gerrard and Kandlikar (2007); Shaharudin et al. (2015); Ziout et al.(2014).
RL: disassembling Go et al.(2011).
RL: remanufacturing &
recycling
Wang et al.(2014).
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384374

subjects in RL and CLSC, some with theoretical/practical aims. Here,
the mentioned subjects are discussed in detail and the associated
publications are presented in the following subsections.
4.1. Analyzing the evaluation studies
There are various types of evaluation studies in a selected
research area that utilize theoretical/practical approaches.
Kerr and Ryan (2001) analyze a well-established remanu-
facturing system for Xerox photocopiers in Australia and try to
quantify the benefits of a life cycle environment of remanufactur-
ing. Indeed, a comparison of the life cycles of remanufactured/non-
remanufactured Xerox photocopiersin Australia is undertaken
(four photocopier life cycles are compared).Forslind (2005) eval-
uates the results of implementing extended producer re-
sponsibility,especially economic consequences,of Sweden's car
scrapping area. Neoclassical microeconomics is utilized in order to
cover the studies of the research.French (2008) evaluates devel-
oping programs in minimizing wastes in the process industries
through product reuse.Then,he analyzes the ways of developing
internal reuse programs for process industries with customer
cooperation in order to reduce waste and to enhance sustainability.
Finally, a case study in a batch blending process industry is
considered.
€Ostlin et al.(2009) analyze an important subject of evaluating
the balance of the product return rate and the demand for rema-
nufacturing products.They try to propose appropriate remanu-
facturing strategies for companies in order to help them balance
supply and demand.Willison and C^ote (2009) present some met-
rics in order to elevate eco-efficiency creditfor companiesin
ecosystem-based fisheries management. They can rank the impacts
of fishing methods based on the biodiversity waste produced. They
suggest some achieved principles of their study to apply in other
natural resource industries,such as forestry and nature-based
tourism.
Mumtaz et al.(2010) investigate how organic acids from palm
oil mill effluent may serve as a renewable feedstock for the
biosynthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). Indeed, they attempt
to optimize evaporation temperatures and acid ratios in the clari-fication of the organic acids from treated palm oil mill effluent.El
korchi and Millet (2011) suggest an assessing framework to eval-
uate different reverse logistics channel structures. There are various
ways to structure the RL networks and they propose a framework to
assess the mentioned structure based on the location of treatment
activities in the logistics network.Hu et al. (2011) utilize circular
economy models including reduce,reuse,recycle,and recover for
effluents from tanneries.In particular,they study six aspects: re-
ductions of wastewater, salt, sulfide and chemical oxygen demand,
ammonium salt, chrome, and solid waste for the tannery effluents
through a case study in China.Salmi and Wierink (2011) evaluate
the effects of recovery on climate change mitigation on a regional
scale. In their paper, the conflict between waste and climate policies
is studied through a case study of the Gulf of Bothnia industrial
region between Finland and Sweden.
Dwivedy and Mittal(2012) study a waste electricaland elec-
tronic equipment (WEEE) trade chain in India.Indeed,they eval-
uate the existing WEEE trade chain and use a Markov chain model
with various policy scenarios in order to analyze the relationships
that exist within the RL partners. Queiruga et al. (2012) investigate
the process of implementing WEEE Directive 2002/96/EC from the
beginning to its full implementation in Spain.They discuss the
characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of this legislation system
in Spain.Ling and Poon (2012) evaluate the feasibility of utilizing
cathode ray tube recycled glass (non-treated funnelglass and
treated funnelglass) as fine aggregates in cement mortar.They
determine that untreated funnel glass is feasible for use in cement
mortar.Jefferies et al. (2012) study the application of both tea and
margarine industries through life cycle assessment (LCA) and water
footprint approaches.They compare these two approaches for the
selected industries and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. In
order to elevate the remanufacturing quality and efficiency for used
machine tools,Du et al. (2012) present an integrated evaluating
method for assessing remanufacturability. The remanufacturability
evaluation aspects include “technology feasibility,economic feasi-
bility, and environmental benefits” while ignoring social benefits in
their study. Lin et al. (2012) propose a performance evaluation
framework for the parallel-line manufacturing system with
different station failure rates.They consider three main aspects of
this manufacturing system,including multiple production lines in
parallel,distinct failure rates for stations, and reworking actions.
Nikolaou et al. (2013) present an evaluation framework through
an integrated model and some performance indicators. Their
research tries to suggest some indicators to evaluate the social re-
sponsibility performance ofRL. They introduce the principles of
corporate socialresponsibility in RL procedures and propose a
framework based on the triple bottom line method. Bai and Sarkis
Fig. 4. Various subjects in reverse logistics (RL) studies.
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384 375

(2013) propose an evaluation model for the RL flexibility based on
neighborhood rough set. Therefore, they discuss a flexibility
framework for the RL and present a tabular format framework
concentrating on operational and strategic dimensions of flexibility.
Giannetti et al. (2013) develop a new approach for assessing an RL
network in the steel recycling industry through an energy synthesis
method.Ortegon et al.(2013) investigate the RL opportunities in
the wind industry.Their study tries to the raise awareness of the
forecasted economic opportunities and unanticipated challenges of
the wind industry.Zeng et al.(2013) compare the situation of EU
and China in terms of the relevant legislation related to the e-
product and e-waste life cycles. Finally, they propose a new
development process of Chinese e-waste management.Huysveld
et al. (2013) study reducing the massive resource usage
throughout the Pangasius cradle to farm gate life cycle. They
consider one of the top Vietnamese producers in order to complete
their evaluations.They utilize a cumulative energy extraction
assessment method from the natural environment. McKenna et al.
(2013) study a selection of vehicle producersfor the German
automotive sector which have LCA studies available. Then, they try
to determine which part of the energy consumed during
manufacturing can be replaced by products from direct secondary
reuse.Ding et al.(2013) propose two technologies for the closed-
loop recycling of chlorine: the hydrogen chloride catalytic oxida-
tion technology and the waste brine recycling technology.Ning
et al. (2013) compare the LCA for two types of solid waste incin-
eration processes: a fluidized-bed incinerator and a mechanical-
grate one.The paper tries to evaluate the environmentaleffects
of two mentioned technologies through a real case study.
Low et al. (2014) analyze the production systemsof CLSC
through LCA and propose a capacitated-deterministic cost mini-
mization approach to assign the tasks in production planning
problem.The proposed approach is the product structure-based
LCA and it is capable ofbreaking the results down into smaller
parts and subsystems. Song et al. (2015) try to evaluate the threats
and opportunities in order to move toward zero waste manage-
ment. The focus of the study is on the industrial,electrical,and
electronic waste and also on food and packaging waste.
4.2. Analyzing the surveys
A vast area of research in JCP is the surveys in clarifying a
problem or evaluating a situation in RL and CLSC issues. The surveys
are conducted through questionnaires,interviews,or other web-
based forms of research in order to address main research ques-
tions. In this section,the surveys of JCP in RL/CLSC are presented
and discussed.
Seitz (2007) manages some interviews from 20 min to several
hours with executives,middle managers,and workers examining
whether the traditional initiations for product recovery are effec-
tive for automotive remanufacturing.Matsumoto (2009) conducts
an interview-based survey in order to develop a novel approach on
independent reuse businesses in Japan. In another interview-based
survey,Amelia et al.(2009) try to identify the current situation of
automotive reuse in Malaysia considering local automotive
component manufacturers. The findings present three main factors
which affect local companies engaged in reuse processes:“cus-
tomer's perception on the quality of reused products,lack of
knowledge and technology to develop reuse,and lack of research
and development programs on reuse.” Subramoniam et al.(2009)
present a review-survey study on strategic planning factors for
automotive aftermarketremanufacturing.They find the appro-
priate strategic factors through a complete literature review in auto
part industries and manage semi-structured interviews with five
business managers.They present a decision-making framework as
the result of the paper.
Subramoniam et al. (2010) conduct a survey with the managers
of some business units and several chief engineers from 18 com-
panies in the United States and Europe.They propose an after-
market remanufacturing decision-making framework based on
some strategic factors that exist in the literature.Rathore et al.
(2011) review the literature of remanufacturing scenariosin
global countries and in India, and then they conduct both in-person
and online questionnaire-based survey.They try to develop a new
strategy for confronting the complex issues related to sustainability
in developing nations.They claim that in order to meet the re-
quirements of sustainable development in countries such as India, a
new approach is needed.
Dindarian et al. (2012) conduct interviews with 82 persons who
are discarding microwaves. As a result of their findings, they try to
suggest design changes in order to improve cost and quality for the
reuse and remanufacturing process ofmicrowave ovens.While
they concentrate the United Kingdom,they evaluate consumers'
behaviors for the mentioned device.Simpson (2012) develops an
exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in order to investigate
the reasons related to the failure of firms to respond to growing
pressures for recycling.Ohnishi et al.(2012) consider some recy-
cling facilities and also 23 Japanese eco-towns in order to evaluate
the amount of treated waste.They concentrate on analyzing the
performance ofthe recycling process through econometric and
regression models.They evaluate the impacts of three aspects for
treated waste from 95 recycling facilities in Japanese eco-towns,
including “recycling boundaries,government policy intervention,
and local collaboration and partnership.”
Saavedra et al. (2013) also review the remanufacturing literature
and then have some interviews in two automotive company case
studies (an original equipment manufacturer and an independent
manufacturer).They evaluate the remanufacturing characteristics
for both of the mentioned remanufacturing actors.Silva et al.
(2013) arrange a semi-structured questionnaires-based survey
with company representatives and compare conventional dispos-
able packaging and returnable packaging models used in the export
of machined engine heads. Zhu and Geng (2013) collect 299 usable
questionnaires in order to evaluate the motives of extended supply
chain practices for saving energy and reducing emissions; they also
analyze the corresponding barriers.They utilize the institutional
theory in order to determine external drivers and internal barriers.
Subramoniam et al.(2013) develop a remanufacturing decision-
making framework through a review of the literature and a sur-
vey of original equipment manufacturers.They utilize analytical
hierarchicalprocess (AHP) for validating the proposed decision-
making framework.Blume and Walther (2013) mange some in-
terviews with 15 decision-makers including 8 original equipment
manufacturers,6 first-tier suppliers,and one consulting company.
They analyze the German automotive industry situation in
addressing the legal norm.
Shaharudin et al. (2015) interview six manufacturers in Malaysia
in order to collect the necessary primary data, and they review 38
related researches of the literature to add supplementary second-
ary data.The main issue explores the obstacles that prevent man-
ufacturers in Malaysia from improving the currentsituation of
returns and recovery management.They categorize the barriers
into two main groups: internal barriers and external barriers.
Abdulrahman et al.(2015) conduct semi-structured interviews in
order to propose a framework for remanufacturingstrategic
decision-making for the Chinese auto parts manufacturers.They
compare three main decisions ofremanufacturing,including in-
house remanufacturing,outsourcing,and the decision not to do
any remanufacturing.Jimenez-Parra etal. (2014)consider 1529
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undergraduatesstudents in order to analyze three hypothesis
related to the intention to purchase a remanufactured laptop.The
hypotheses consider the favorable attitude, the favorable subjective
norm,and the level of motivations towards purchasing a remanu-
factured laptop. Kurdve et al. (2015) try to elevate the knowledge of
integrating operationsand environmental managementon an
operational level utilizing a waste flow mapping method.The sur-
vey is based on three main research questions regarding
improvement procedures in waste management.Murakami et al.
(2015) collected data from 22 interviews and each interview las-
ted for about 1 h to study public policies of the Brazilian govern-
ment in order to motivate companies to increase their recycling
efforts. Various leading Brazilian industries case studies are
considered in the survey.
4.3. Analyzing the conceptual frameworks
There are some studies which try to construct and suggest a
conceptual framework related to a problem as a new model,solu-
tion method, evaluation methodology,or analyzing approach.
These approaches are discussed here in detail.
White et al. (2003) try to propose an environmental-based
framework for recovery management.The paper considers some
computer recovery companies and aims to identify the various
environmental impacts of reverse manufacturing design and
operation.Mont et al.(2006) develop a business model based on
selling the function that baby prams provide through leasing
prams.They analyze the appropriate changes needed in both sup-
ply and development chains. Gerrard and Kandlikar (2007) present
an evaluation model for measuring the environmentalperfor-
mances which are originated from end-of-life vehicle (ELV) regu-
lations.The paper tries to concentrate on allaspects of recovery
options as the means of moving toward environmentally sustain-
able production.Hojas Baenas et al.(2011) present an RL frame-
work for small manufacturers of labor intensive operations in car
battery industries in Braziland they expand the conclusions for
developing countries.
Ravi (2012) proposes a new quality measuring system to eval-
uate the overallquality of recycling of a system considering EOL
computers recycling systems.The paper utilizes multi-attribute
global inference of quality techniques in order to cover the sub-
ject. Blengini et al. (2012) implement the LCA methodology in a
sustainable aggregatesresource managementproject. Cristobal
Andrade et al. (2012) present a managementstrategy for pro-
ducers and intermediate managers to supervise the hazardous
waste generated in an atomized sector.A Spain printing plant is
considered to validate their proposed strategy framework.
Rashid et al. (2013) develop a conceptual framework of resource
conservative manufacturing.The paper focuses on the evaluating
developmentof the current closed-loop manufacturing systems
and tries to elevate product systems based on the conservation of
resources.Chen and Sheu (2013) present a novel reverse hotelling
model in order to clarify the motivation for eco-design improve-
ment.The study discusses the important role of industrial ecosys-
tems or eco-industrial parks for the extended producer
responsibility.Finally,Gelbmann and Hammerl (2014) investigate
the sustainable product/service system and try to develop a new
reuse framework in order to provide labor market integration and
comprehensive reuse services.They discuss three reuse cases
through their approach.
4.4. Analyzing the review studies
There are some review and partial review researches in RL/CLSC
in JCP which are presented in this subsection.
Pigosso et al. (2010) investigate ecodesign methods and
concentrate on LCA, EOL strategies, and remanufacturing through a
systematic review. They review the ecodesign methods in order to
suggest ways of reducing total environmental impact of products.
Hatcher et al.(2011) review the literature of design for remanu-
facturing studies and try to analyze the trends,threats,and op-
portunities.They review 37 publications related to the designing
methods for increasing remanufacturability between 1995 and
2011. Go et al. (2011) focus on disassembly methods and review the
corresponding disassembly issues ofEOL products in order to
illustrate the necessities of an effective disassembly process.They
evaluate four important factors of disassembly methods, including
the times required for preparing tool,for moving between joint
elements,for disassembling joint elements by using tool,and the
post processing time required for forwarding disassembled com-
ponents to the appropriate places.
Ng et al. (2012) present a review ofthe publication in palm
biomass industry in order to evaluate its green potential focusing
on the Malaysia's economic and sustainable development.They
analyze the future opportunities and challenges of Malaysian palm
biomass industry regarding green policies.Govindan et al.(2013)
provide a complete review of over 234 papers of coordination
contracts.They suggest a framework for categorizing coordination
contracts and review the publications of the contracting literature
in the developed framework.Binnemans et al.(2013) present an
overview of the literature in the recycling of rare earth materials
including permanent magnets,nickel metal hydride batteries,and
lamp phosphors.They find an incrementaltrend in research ac-
tivities in developing effective recycling processes of rare
earths.
Goodall et al. (2014) study 41 papers published after 2003 in
order to answer the main question of finding tools and methods to
evaluate the sustainability ofremanufacturing processes.Chen
et al. (2014) provide an overview of the literature in remanu-
facturing of dies and molds; they study the remanufacturability of
dies and molds through the few current publications. They discuss
the challenges and opportunities of remanufacturing diesand
molds from the perspectives of both academia and practitioners.
4.5. Analyzing the simulation studies
The simulation studies utilize system dynamics approaches or
simulation software in order to analyze certain situations or sce-
narios.The corresponding publications in JCP are discussed here.
Schultmann et al.(2004) study the recycling planning in the
process industries through comparing the current plant data with
the simulation findings based on flowsheeting process models.
They consider the production processes in the iron and steelin-
dustry.Georgiadis and Besiou (2008) present a system dynamics
based model in order to assess the effects of ecological motivations
and technologicalinnovations on the long-term behavior of a
system. They utilize sensitivity analyses and analysis of variance in
order to support their results. Matsumoto (2010) presents a
simulation study in order to analyze customer behavior in the
reuse market.He tries to identify the factors supporting reuse in
both customers and companies and then develops a simulation-
based modelfor reuse businesses.Mafakheri and Nasiri (2013)
study coordinating issues of a reverse supply chain consisting of
a manufacturer and a retailer in a revenue-sharing based contract.
Such contracts result in dynamic feedback from the manufacturer's
revenue-sharing policies to the retailer's strategies in collecting
EOL products from customers.
Corum et al.(2014) compare the hybrid pushepull production
planning systems with the traditional inventory-based one.48
various scenarios for three production systems,including hybrid
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push, hybrid pull, and traditional systems,are simulated and
evaluated for 1500 periods. Wang et al. (2014) make a simulation-
based research on the impact of government subsidy policies on the
improvement of the situation of the recycling and remanufacturing
industry.They focus on China and they use a system dynamics
technique to consider the Chinese auto parts industry.Kumar and
Rahman (2014) develop a simulation model for comparing a sys-
tem before and after implementation of RFID (radio-frequency
identification) technology in a CLSC. They analyze the reengineered
CLSC of their case study after implementing RFID utilizing Arena
simulation software.
4.6. Decision making studies
Some studies focus on decision making frameworks and tools
which are illustrated in this subsection of the paper.
Jiang et al. (2011) study the problem of selecting the appropriate
remanufacturing technology portfolio utilizing AHP.The corre-
sponding criteria of their decision making process are “cost, quality,
time, service,resource consumption,and environmental impact.”
C^andido et al.(2011) utilize recycling cycles of the materials as an
approach for the selection of materials.A blending Brazilian com-
pany is selected to evaluate the processof material selection
through the selected tool.
Xia et al. (2015) study the Chinese auto part remanufacturers in
order to identify their internalbarriers.They try to analyze the
current barriers through enterprise interviews and publications
and then they use gray DEMATEL (decision-making trial and eval-
uation laboratory) as a multi-attribute decision making tool with 3
industrial managers and 1 academic expert.They analyze three
major tangible barriers in the Chinese automotive sector, including
“lack of funds for technology research, lack of funds for expanding
scale of production,and low profit.” They also identify four intan-
gible barriers of remanufacturing of ELV.Ziout et al.(2014) study
selecting the most sustainable EOL product recovery alternatives
through an AHP method. They analyze four recovery options,
including resale, fixing, refurbishing, and remanufacturing through
the PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological,environ-
mental, and legal) model. Tian et al. (2014) investigate automotive
components remanufacturing issues in China and try to compare
two case studies utilizing the AHP method.They consider three
criteria: “design technology,production process technology,and
technology management.”
4.7. Analyzing publications with “planning” subject
In this paper the “planning” term implies three levels of deci-
sion making in supply chains,including design,tactical,and oper-
ational planning (Simchi-Levi et al., 2008). There are a few studies
in JCP related to these identified planning issues that are discussed
here.
€Ozkır and Bas¸lıgil (2013) present a design and tacticalcapaci-
tated planning study to modela CLSC in order to achieve profit
maximization. They consider product recovery in both component
and product level(multi-level,multi-commodity) in a nondeter-
ministic demand situation.Fahimnia et al.(2013) develop a math-
ematical planning model for green supply chain management and
CLSC in order to evaluate various scenarios for carbon prices.The
decision making levelis an integrated tactical-operationalplan-
ning. They present a mixed integer-linear programming formula-
tion of an actual case company in Australia.
Demirel et al.(2016) propose a reverse network design model
based on the real case study in recycling process of ELV industries.
They develop a model in order to minimize the harmful effects of
ELV wastes in Ankara and evaluate the scenarios until 2022. Qiang
(2015) evaluatesthe profitability of remanufacturing through
developing a CLSC production planning model.The paper tries to
analyze three main questions in its research about the profitability
of remanufacturing,product design choice,and asymmetrical de-
mands effects in remanufacturing.
4.8. Mathematical framework studies
In contrast with conceptual frameworks, there are few papers in
JCP related to mathematical frameworks summarized here.
Grimes-Casey et al.(2007) utilize a game theory in order to
evaluate the life cycle of bottle packaging.They develop a mathe-
matical framework for choosing between refillable and disposable
bottles.They develop the mentioned game-theory-based frame-
work in order to determine the optimal strategy set in a product life
cycle managementscenario. Gutterres et al. (2010) present a
mathematical framework in order to minimize water consumption
at tanneries through utilizing the reuse of water in some phases of
the process.They develop a mathematicalmodel for mass inte-
gration in order to cope with the water reuse problem in the
beamhouse steps.
4.9. Product designing focus publications
In the categorization process ofJCP publications in RL/CLSC,
there are two papers which specifically focus on the designing of
products. While this subject has been discussed in some papers in
earlier subsections, the following papers have not been mentioned
in the above classifications.
Gehin et al. (2008) study the main question of sustainable
designing of products and believe that the smart design ofthe
products can overcome many difficulties of reusing,recycling,and
remanufacturing of the different parts. Pialot et al. (2012) present a
method in order to identify the appropriate structure for imple-
menting remanufacturingprocesses. They mention that the
modular design of architecture can make the reverse supply chain a
profitable and a cost-effective processwhich can be used in
practice.
5. Case studies and investigated industries
The review on the JCP publications in the field of RL/CLSC sug-
gests that the policy of the journal is moving toward papers con-
taining case studies or even case-based papers which define the
problem based on an industrial necessity. Our studies confirm that
60 out of 83 papers contain numericalcase studies,a ratio that
means 72.3% of allRL/CLSC papers in JCP support their research
with real-number instances based on the appropriate case studies.
Clearly,the mentioned papers consider one or more companies in
their case studies,but there are other publications withoutin-
stances ofreal case studies.Instead,those articles may analyze
actual industries in their paper.Thus, 83% of all papers regard real
industries and only 14 papers out of 83 do not consider any case
study or industry. Table 2 analyzes the industries of the papers with
case studies.
Table 2 presents the investigated industries in JCP publications
in the field of RL/CLSC,which proves that a wide variety ofin-
dustries are considered in these publications; only 14 articles were
published without any industrial/case analysis. Table 2 also shows
that automobile industries (both auto parts suppliers and vehicle
manufacturers/remanufacturers) are the most noticeable industry
represented with 22.9% of total publications and 27.5% of all
industrial-based papers.The next rank is achieved by electronic
and computer industries with 9.6% of total publications and 11.6% of
all industrial-based papers.Further,Table 2 proves thatvarious
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384378

industries are investigated in JCP publications in RL/CLSC including
steel,tannery,power,photocopy and printing,palm oil, machine
tools, food, cement,blending,baby pram,mining/quarrying/con-
struction, beverage refillable bottles, eco-towns, fisheries, footwear
manufacturing, healthcare, microwave manufacturer, poly-
urethane,and solid waste incinerators.
6. Decision variables analysis
Based on the article by Chopra and Meindl(2010),there are
three time-based levels of decision making in supply chain man-
agement. These levels include strategic (long-term decision-
making), tactical (mid-term decision-making),and operational
(short-term decision-making). The selected papers of this study are
analyzed from this perspective in order to evaluate the various
decision variables ofthe papers. Table 3 classifies the decision
variables of 27 of the selected papers.In the table, the corre-
sponding decision variables are presented after each reference in
parentheses.
Table 3 illustrates the various decision variables ofthe JCP
publications in the field of RL/CLSC.The table covers just 27 pa-
pers, meaning that only 32.5% of the papers can be assigned to the
categories defined above.The main concentration of the decision
variables is on strategic ones,demonstrating 74.1% of all decision
variables.The results of Table 3 again illustrate the minority of
quantitative analysis.For instance,no papers with operational
decision variables or “tactical and operational” occur in our
selections.
7. Geographical distributions of the authors
Table 4 provides the geographical or regional affiliations of all
authors of the selected papers.The numbers also can clarify the
total number of authors in 83 papers.The table is provided in
descending order.
Table 4 illustrates that China,Brazil,and USA contribute 38% of
all authors in JCP.29 other countries are represented,and authors
from all continents except Africa and Antarctica have contributed
papers to JCP in the field of RL and CLSC. European countries,
including those north and east of Europe introduce 39% of all JCP
authors in this field. Further, 10 countries of Asia contribute 32% of
total affiliations,while South America and North America have a
13% and 12% share,respectively,of the authors.The table depicts
that there are 272 authors (273 minus 1 because of a shared affil-
iation) from 29 countries who have provided 83 published papers
in RL and CLSC to JCP.Roughly,on average we can see 3.3 authors
per paper, which proves the high standard of research team
numbers in this journal.
8. Citations report of the publications
One of the most important criteria of the research is the impact
of the paper on other scientific environments. Citations reports can
be a good measure in order to evaluate the impacts of the publi-
cations.Table 5 presents the detailof citations in two academic
search engines:Scholar.google which considers a wide range of
journals, and SCOPUS which considers some evaluated and
Table 2
Investigated industries of the JCP publications in RL/CLSC.
Industries Numbers Publications
No industry 14 Govindan et al. (2013);€Ozkır and Bas¸lıgil (2013); Nikolaou et al.(2013); Bai and Sarkis (2013);
Rashid et al.(2013); Dwivedy and Mittal (2012); Pialot et al. (2012); Chen and Sheu (2013);
Gerrard and Kandlikar (2007); Hatcher et al. (2011); Binnemans et al. (2013); Qiang (2015);
Corum et al.(2014); Chen et al.(2014);
Various industries 13 Fahimnia et al.(2013); Simpson (2012); Zhu and Geng (2013); Matsumoto (2009);
Zeng et al.(2013); €Ostlin et al.(2009); Pigosso et al.(2010); Queiruga et al. (2012);
Shaharudin et al.(2015); Murakami et al.(2015); Goodall et al.(2014);
Gelbmann and Hammerl (2014); Song et al.(2015);
Auto parts suppliers 11 Subramoniam et al. (2009); Matsumoto (2010); Subramoniam et al.(2010);
Hojas Baenas et al.(2011); Subramoniam et al.(2013); Blume and Walther (2013);
Amelia et al.(2009); Abdulrahman et al. (2015); Xia et al.(2015); Wang et al.(2014);
Tian et al. (2014);
Vehicle manufacturer/remanufacturer 8 Seitz (2007); Saavedra et al. (2013); McKenna et al.(2013); Forslind (2005); Go et al. (2011);
Demirel et al.(2016); Kurdve et al. (2015); Ziout et al.(2014);
Electronic and computer 8 Georgiadis and Besiou (2008); Mafakheri and Nasiri (2013); Rathore et al.(2011);
White et al.(2003); El korchi and Millet (2011); Ravi (2012); Low et al.(2014);
Jimenez-Parra et al.(2014);
Steel 3 Giannetti et al.(2013); Schultmann et al. (2004); Salmi and Wierink (2011);
Tannery 2 Hu et al. (2011); Gutterres et al.(2010);
Power 2 Ortegon et al.(2013); Jiang et al.(2011);
Photocopy and printing 2 Kerr and Ryan (2001); Cristobal Andrade et al.(2012);
Palm oil 2 Ng et al.(2012); Mumtaz et al.(2010);
Machine tools 2 Silva et al. (2013); Du et al. (2012);
Food 2 Huysveld et al. (2013); Jefferies et al. (2012);
Cement 2 Gehin et al.(2008); Ling and Poon (2012);
Blending 2 French (2008); C^andido et al.(2011);
Baby pram 1 Mont et al.(2006)
Mining/quarrying/construction 1 Blengini et al. (2012)
Beverage refillable bottles 1 Grimes-Casey et al.(2007)
Eco-Towns 1 Ohnishi et al. (2012)
Fisheries 1 Willison and C^ote (2009)
Footwear manufacturing 1 Lin et al. (2012)
Healthcare 1 Kumar and Rahman (2014)
Microwave manufacturer 1 Dindarian et al.(2012)
Polyurethane 1 Ding et al. (2013)
Solid waste incinerators 1 Ning et al.(2013)
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384 379

accredited journals. This citations report is provided in October 12,
2015.
Table 5 illustrates a detailed citations reports of83 selected
papers which are presented in descending order based on the
number of citations in Scopus per year. The critical review of
Binnemans et al.(2013) with 63.5 and 103 per-year citations in
Scopus and in Scholar.google respectively presents the best per-
formance in JCP and a high standard one in other scientific journals.
In terms of the total number of citations, Kerr and Ryan (2001) with
159 and 316 total citations in Scopus and in Scholar.google
respectively are the most cited papers in RL and CLSC in JCP.The
average total numbers of citations for 83 selected journals are 23.5
and 40.8 in Scopus and in Scholar.google respectively which
represent an acceptable range of citations.On the other hand,the
average numbers of citations per year are 6.2 and 11.0 in Scopus and
in Scholar.google respectively. The average numbers of citations are
still preset the acceptable quality ofthe JCP papers in this field
which can play an appropriate role in the academic environment.
However,there may be more improvements and opportunities in
the citations for the JCP publications.
9. Conclusion and future research
In this paper,a comprehensive review study is undertaken for
the Journalof Cleaner Production in the popular fields of reverse
logistics and closed-loop supply chain.A total of 83 online papers
accepted until 31 December 2014 are selected,reviewed, and
categorized based on the proposed novelclassifications ofthis
study.The results can help researchers who are interested in JCP
publications in order to understand the various subjects ofthe
accepted papers and the future research opportunities. The results
can also support the decisions of policy makers of the JCP in order
to analyze the past accomplishments and to envision the future.
The results of the review illustrate an incremental trend for the
accepted papers in JCP from 2001 to 2014 in both RL and CLSC
subjects.The analyses show that 69 papers out of 83 are based on
RL subjects and the rest are based on CLSC issues.Further,the RL
studies are classified in 8 categories of research including (in
descending order) generalstudies,remanufacturing,waste man-
agement, recycling, reuse, recovery, disassembling, and
remanufacturing-recycling investigations. Table 1 presents detailed
information on the publications in the mentioned classifications.
The results illustrate various types of research in all defined cate-
gories occurring in JCP.
In this paper, the 83 selected papers are evaluated based on the
main focus of the paper; they are categorized into 10 subfields of
research including (in descending order) evaluation studies (31.3%
of all studies),surveys (22.9%),conceptualframeworks (12.1%),
Table 3
Analysis of decision variables.
Decision-making level Publications
Strategic (20 papers) Govindan et al. (2013) (choosing the types of contracts),Georgiadis and Besiou (2008) (strategies of compliance to legislation),
El korchi and Millet (2011) (treatment duration of activities,storage duration,distance between customers and others,
annual quantity of products'returns),Dwivedy and Mittal (2012) (market analysis and related strategies),
Silva et al. (2013) (selecting packaging procedure),Jiang et al.(2011) (selecting remanufacturing technology),
Subramoniam et al. (2013) (a remanufacturing decision-making),Schultmann et al.(2004) (determining recycling strategies),
Pigosso et al. (2010) (developing integration of different EOL strategies) French (2008) (defining reuse program),
Mont et al.(2006) (defining leasing program),Grimes-Casey et al.(2007) (optimal strategies in a product LCA scenario),
Lin et al. (2012) (finding the minimal capacity vectors of the that stations in order to satisfy demand),
Cristobal Andrade et al.(2012) (selecting the strategy for the hazardous waste generated by an atomized sector),
Gutterres et al. (2010) (assigning the mass flow rate of the recycle/reuse stream that flows from one unit to another),
Kumar and Rahman (2014) (analyzing the effects of the implementation of RFID), Abdulrahman et al.(2015)
(selecting in-house,outsource,and postpone remanufacturing),Wang et al.(2014) (selecting the strategies of various subsidies)
Murakami et al.(2015) (determining waste-based strategies),Ziout et al.(2014) (choosing recovery options).
Tactical (2 papers) Mafakheri and Nasiri (2013) (determining the characteristics of the revenue-sharing contract and return incentive variables),
Ravi (2012) (determining the quality of e-waste).
Operational (0) e
Strategic and
tactical (2 papers)
Fahimnia et al.(2013) (assigning the flows between entities),Demirel et al. (2016) (assigning the flows between entities).
Strategic and
operational (3 papers)
€Ozkır and Bas¸lıgil (2013) (location decisions,production quantities,transportation quantities,and compromised prices
for each product),Bai and Sarkis (2013) (determining the strategical flexibility and operational flexibility),
Grimes-Casey et al.(2007) (choosing the optimal strategy set in a product life cycle management scenario
and total bottles produced).
Tactical and operational (0) e
Table 4
The distribution of authors based on the location.
Country Number of
authors
(affiliations)
Percentage Region
China 40 15% Asia
Brazil 36 13% South America
USA 27 10% North America
Malaysia 22 8% Asia
United Kingdom 19 7% Europe
Sweden 18 7% Europe
Germany 11 4% Europe
Belgium 11 4% Europe
Spain 10 4% Europe
Australia 9 3% Australia
Turkey 8 3% Europe
France 8 3% Europe
Netherland 7 3% Europe
Japan 7 3% Asia
Taiwan 7 3% Asia
Canada 6 2% North America
Greek 5 2% Europe
India 5 2% Asia
Italy 3 1% Europe
UAE 2 1% Asia
Denmark 2 1% Europe
Finland 2 1% Europe
Singapore 2 1% Asia
Iran 1 Below 1% Asia
Slovenia 1 Below 1% Europe
Burkina Faso 1 Below 1% Europe
Hungary 1 Below 1% Europe
Hong Kong 1 Below 1% Asia
Bangladesh 1 Below 1% Asia (shared affiliation)
Total 273 100% -
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384380

review studies (9.7%),simulations (8.4%),decision making re-
searches (6.0%),planning (4.8%),mathematical frameworks (2.4%),
and product designing studies (2.4%).It can be concluded that
qualitative types ofresearch are more often considered in com-
parison to quantitative investigations. A detailed discussion of each
category is presented in Section 4.
The analyses ofthe JCP publications in the field of RL/CLSC
illustrate that the main approach of the journal is to accept practical
papers regarding real case studies. The statistics reveal that 72.3% of
the accepted papers in JCP consider real numerical studies, and 83%
of all papers regard one or more industries, including (in descending
order) various industries,auto parts suppliers,vehicle manufac-
turer/remanufacturer,electronic and computer,steel,tannery,po-
wer, photocopy and printing, palm oil, machine tools, food, cement,
blending, baby pram, mining/quarrying/construction,beverage
refillable bottles, eco-towns, fisheries, footwear manufacturing,
healthcare, microwave manufacturer, polyurethane, and solid waste
incinerators. The results show that there are just 14 out of 83 papers
(16.9%) without any industrial/case analysis. Further, the automobile
industries (both auto parts suppliers and vehicle manufacturers/
remanufacturers) are the most popular industry with 22.9% of total
publications and 27.5% of all industrial-based papers. The next place
is for electronic and computer industries with 9.6% of total publi-
cations and 11.6% of all industrial-based papers.Roughly,it can be
concluded that JCP has strong tendencies in practical research which
can originate industrial achievements.
Regarding decision variables and based on the three-level de-
cision-making in supply chain management,the results of this
study prove that the main focus of the researchers is on strategic
decision variables with 74.1% of all decision variables in the selected
papers.These results can be mentioned as complementary to the
above-mentioned point regarding the more qualitative approach of
the JCP and its concentration in the high managerial levels of de-
cision making.The detailed discussion ofthe types of decision
variables is presented in Table 3.
The analyses ofthis study originate some future research for
authors and also for JCP policy makers as follows:
One of the main opportunities of research is concentrating on
the important issue of closing the loop of a supply chain.
However,RL is a critical issue in practice but we should finally
close the loop and manage a CLSC. The results illustrate that just
16.9% of the papers in JCP consider CLSC which proves that a
better trade-off can be realized in this field.
Fig. 3 illustrates that some RL subjects can be more often
considered such as reuse,recovery,and disassembling which
play an important role in the profitability and effectiveness of an
RL network.
Table 5
The citations reports of 83 selected papers in RL and CLSC (12 Oct.2015).
Row Publications Citations
in scopus
Citations
in google
Citations
in scopus
per year
Citations
in google
per year
Row Publications Citations
in scopus
Citations
in google
Citations
in scopus
per year
Citations
in google
per year
1 Binnemans et al. (2013) 127 206 63.50 103.00 43 Wang et al.(2014) 5 6 5.00 6.00
2 Ng et al.(2012) 56 71 18.67 23.67 44 Rathore et al. (2011) 19 37 4.75 9.25
3 Gehin et al.(2008) 101 178 14.43 25.43 45 Rashid et al. (2013) 9 15 4.50 7.50
4 Subramoniam et al.(2009) 77 132 12.83 22.00 46 Amelia et al. (2009) 26 53 4.33 8.83
5 €Ostlin et al.(2009) 76 128 12.67 21.33 47 Dwivedy and Mittal (2012) 13 18 4.33 6.00
6 Seitz (2007) 98 180 12.25 22.50 48 Dindarian et al.(2012) 13 17 4.33 5.67
7 Zhu and Geng (2013) 24 68 12.00 34.00 49 Blengini et al.(2012) 12 17 4.00 5.67
8 Hatcher et al.(2011) 46 92 11.50 23.00 50 Huysveld et al.(2013) 8 10 4.00 5.00
9 Kerr and Ryan (2001) 159 316 11.36 22.57 51 Goodall et al.(2014) 4 11 4.00 11.00
10 Jefferies et al. (2012) 33 50 11.00 16.67 52 Matsumoto (2009) 19 29 3.17 4.83
11 Pigosso et al. (2010) 54 89 10.80 17.80 53 Grimes-Casey et al.(2007) 24 45 3.00 5.63
12 Georgiadis and Besiou (2008) 75 109 10.71 15.57 54 Mafakheri and Nasiri (2013) 6 15 3.00 7.50
13 Gerrard and Kandlikar (2007) 80 170 10.00 21.25 55 Low et al. (2014) 3 5 3.00 5.00
14 Bai and Sarkis (2013) 19 35 9.50 17.50 56 Kurdve et al.(2015) 3 6 3.00 6.00
15 Ortegon et al.(2013) 19 32 9.50 16.00 57 Xia et al. (2015) 3 8 3.00 8.00
16 Nikolaou et al.(2013) 18 50 9.00 25.00 58 Schultmann et al.(2004) 31 38 2.82 3.45
17 Mumtaz et al.(2010) 44 54 8.80 10.80 59 Pialot et al.(2012) 8 14 2.67 4.67
18 Zeng et al.(2013) 17 21 8.50 10.50 60 Simpson (2012) 8 11 2.67 3.67
19 Du et al. (2012) 24 28 8.00 9.33 61 Ohnishi et al.(2012) 8 20 2.67 6.67
20 Subramoniam et al.(2013) 16 33 8.00 16.50 62 Forslind (2005) 25 45 2.50 4.50
21 El korchi and Millet (2011) 31 35 7.75 8.75 63 Gutterres et al.(2010) 12 21 2.40 4.20
22 Ravi (2012) 23 30 7.67 10.00 64 Hojas Baenas et al. (2011) 8 20 2.00 5.00
23 Ling and Poon (2012) 23 31 7.67 10.33 65 C^andido et al.(2011) 8 10 2.00 2.50
24 €Ozkır and Bas¸lıgil (2013) 15 31 7.50 15.50 66 Lin et al.(2012) 6 8 2.00 2.67
25 Fahimnia et al.(2013) 15 30 7.50 15.00 67 Cristobal Andrade et al.(2012) 6 12 2.00 4.00
26 Giannetti et al.(2013) 15 27 7.50 13.50 68 Demirel et al.(2016) 2 2 2.00 2.00
27 Jiang et al. (2011) 29 42 7.25 10.50 69 Qiang (2015) 2 4 2.00 4.00
28 Go et al.(2011) 29 37 7.25 9.25 70 Kumar and Rahman (2014) 2 4 2.00 4.00
29 Ziout et al.(2014) 7 13 7.00 13.00 71 Jimenez-Parra et al. (2014) 2 6 2.00 6.00
30 Mont et al.(2006) 60 121 6.67 13.44 72 Willison and C^ote (2009) 10 10 1.67 1.67
31 Silva et al. (2013) 13 25 6.50 12.50 73 McKenna et al.(2013) 3 8 1.50 4.00
32 Tian et al.(2014) 6 9 6.00 9.00 74 Ding et al. (2013) 3 4 1.50 2.00
33 Chen et al.(2014) 6 12 6.00 12.00 75 Salmi and Wierink (2011) 5 5 1.25 1.25
34 Hu et al.(2011) 23 37 5.75 9.25 76 Matsumoto (2010) 6 14 1.20 2.80
35 Queiruga et al. (2012) 17 25 5.67 8.33 77 French (2008) 8 14 1.14 2.00
36 Subramoniam et al.(2010) 28 55 5.60 11.00 78 Chen and Sheu (2013) 2 2 1.00 1.00
37 Saavedra et al. (2013) 11 24 5.50 12.00 79 Corum et al.(2014) 1 2 1.00 2.00
38 White et al.(2003) 64 110 5.33 9.17 80 Gelbmann and Hammerl (2014) 1 4 1.00 4.00
39 Govindan et al. (2013) 10 27 5.00 13.50 81 Shaharudin et al.(2015) 0 4 0.00 4.00
40 Blume and Walther (2013) 10 13 5.00 6.50 82 Murakami et al.(2015) 0 4 0.00 4.00
41 Ning et al. (2013) 10 14 5.00 7.00 83 Song et al. (2015) 0 8 0.00 8.00
42 Abdulrahman et al.(2015) 5 12 5.00 12.00 Total Average 23.5 40.8 6.2 11.0
K. Govindan,H. Soleimani / Journal of Cleaner Production 142 (2017) 371e384 381

The analyses of RL papers clarify the lack of research in multi-
disciplinary subjects.Fig. 3 proves that the RL subjects are
concentrated on a specific subjectsuch as remanufacturing,
recycling,etc.Further,we can see just one paper which studies
remanufacturing and recycling simultaneously (Wang et al., 2014).
Indeed, in order to convey more to the practical issues, RL subjects
should be investigated together as an integrated subject.For
instance,remanufacturing is just one alternative of an RL-based
system and we cannot consider remanufacturing independently.
The studies of this paper determine the opportunities of
research in mathematicaloptimization subjects.Fig. 4 shows
that only 4 papers (just 4.8%) are in the popular fields of opti-
mization which can really help practitioners in moving toward
profit maximization,cost minimization,etc. Other mathemat-
ical frameworks,simulation studies,multi-objective/attribute
decision making,location-allocation studies,production plan-
ning, and other related mathematical fields can be suggested as
future direction subjects for JCP researchers.Further, non-
deterministic approaches can be considered more often; there
are only 5 (6.0%) related papers here (€Ozkır and Bas¸lıgil, 2013;
Bai and Sarkis, 2013; Dwivedy and Mittal, 2012; Lin et al.,
2012; and Corum et al.,2014).
Fig. 4 also presents a novel technical field of research which is
mentioned as “product designing” with just 2 related papers
(2.4%).Product designing can be a critical issue in applicability
and profitability of reusing return products in practice. Modular
designing can help remanufacturing,disassembling,and other
reverse processes.In practice,a product with low design capa-
bility of reusing cannot lead to a profitable reverse supply chain
and this will make RL/CLSC as an undesirable compulsory issue
(because of the regulations).
Regarding case studies, the analyses found in Table 2 prove that
the main research concentration rests on three industries,
including auto parts suppliers,vehicle manufacturer/remanu-
facturer, and electronic and computer. Therefore, other
mentioned categories of industries such as steel,food,health-
care,etc.which are important industries in sustainable supply
chain managementcan be given more attention by the re-
searchers in JCP.
In terms of decision variables,all types of decision variables
except strategic ones can be mentioned as future directions of
research.For instance,there is no research which concentrates
on operationalor on “tacticaland operational” decision vari-
ables.The other types of decision variables (except strategic
ones in Table 3) comprise just 25.9% of the related papers which
means there is room for further investigation.
The analyses of geographical distributions of the authors (based
on their affiliations) presented in Table 4 illustrate 29 countries
represented from most continents. JCP includes work in thefield
of RL and CLSC from many countries, but China, Brazil, and USA
contribute 38% of all authors. Similarly, European countries hold
a 39% share of all JCP authors in this field. However, the analysis
of the real case studies in RL/CLSC from allover the world
including Africa can provide a comprehensive view of the
reverse supply chain to the authors.
The citations reports, as illustrated in Table 5, present an
acceptable situation of the JCP papers in the field of RL and CLSC.
The detailed citations reports of the 83 selected papers clarify
that the total numbers of citations are 23.5 and 40.8 in Scopus
and in Scholar.google respectively.On average,the numbers of
citations per year are 6.2 and 11.0 in Scopus and in Scholar.-
google respectively.These numbers present acceptable perfor-
mance for JCP publications in this field. Further, developing the
area of research in the abovementioned gaps can improve the
citations reach of JCP publications.
The final direction of research which is now wellreceived by
researchers is service operations in RL and CLSCs.Wang et al.
(2015) successfully review the papers in operations research
and the management science literature and present the growing
interests and the future research opportunities in this field. Such
topics as outsourcing, customer service, competition, consumer
welfare,and operations risk management are fruitful areas for
further research.Therefore,in the fields of RL and CLSC,the
mentioned subjectscan be considered for JCP researchers.
Further, the study of Stavrulaki and Davis (2014) can be
mentioned as a new typology for service supply chains (service
delivery process) with an appropriate discussion of managerial
implications.
There is also more future research based on the limitations
associated with the current research. Sustainable supply chains and
green supply chains are two fields of research which,in some pa-
pers, it may be difficult to declare an explicit link to RL/CLSC.
Consequently, the current study can be evolved through reviewing
the papers of other related and similar subjects such as sustain-
ability and green studies for JCP. The other limitation of this paper
could be the method of categorization.Here, we categorized the
publications based on the contentof the papers. However, an
analysis of the approaches of the papers can be another angle.For
example,the publications can be divided in two main groups:
qualitative and quantitative papers. Then, subcategorizations based
on two main approaches might be provided. Finally, the papers can
be reviewed in each subcategorization. The same evaluation can be
undertaken in comparing two or more similar journals in order to
achieve a better understanding of future opportunities for research
and of the particular distinctions and policies of each journal.
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