This paper aims to present a citation-based bibliometric review of Islamic banking efficiency literature from 2000 until August 2020 for analyzing the content of the literature and mapping future research directions.

Using bibliometric citation analysis, this study reviews and examines a total of 278 documents from Web of Science (WoS) indexed sources coupled with content analysis.

The results identified that the growth of Islamic banking efficiency literature has begun to rise since 2008 with an annual growth rate of 12.5% while identifying the most influential aspects of Islamic banking efficiency literature in terms of topics, papers, authors and keywords. The outcomes of science mapping (i.e. co-citation network, bibliometric coupling and co-authorship network) reveal that there are three underlying research streams in Islamic banking efficiency literature: growth of Islamic banking efficiency literature, stability and genuineness of Islamic banking operations and the methods in Islamic banking efficiency literature.

To the best of the knowledge, this is the first bibliometric review paper on Islamic banking efficiency literature. It successfully unveils the scientific mapping of published WoS documents with a future research agenda also proposed based on the review outcomes. These findings can be used in efficiency-related initiatives by managers or regulators for managing Islamic bank operations worldwide.