Transportation research Part E-logistics and transportation review: 25 years in retrospect

•Review the development of Transportation Review Part E from 1997 to 2021.•Examine hot research topics over time and reveal their evolution using the bibliometric analysis approach.•Identify seven emerging research topics and point out future research directions. We have witnessed the rapid growth and impact of Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review (TRE) in both supply chain and transportation communities since it was founded in 1997 with a particular focus on logistics and transportation. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of TRE (1997–2021), we aim to investigate impactful research topics addressed by TRE in the past 25 years, review their research methodologies, and analyze their trends. To achieve the objective, we collect 2,268 documents published in TRE during 1997–2021. Based on these documents and their citations, we identify hot research topics over time and reveal their evolution using the bibliometric analysis approach. We further shed light on seven emerging research topics and point out the future valuable research directions.