Scientific production on the Mantel-Haenszel procedure as a way of detecting DIF.

For more than two decades, the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure has been used to detect differential item functioning (DIF). A bibliometric study of this use of the MH procedure was conducted in order to better understand the current state of the research activity in the area (in terms of quantitative indicators and impact). Initially, we drew up a map of scientific output about this research area, and we subsequently conducted a detailed analysis of citations of authors and studies concerning the MH procedure. Main results suggest that the study of MH reached its peak in 1995; the most productive journal is the Journal of Educational Measurement, followed by Applied Psychological Measurement; the country with the greatest research output is the USA; the institutions that contribute to the research are mostly universities; the data fit Lotka's law of frequency of publication and do not confirm the exponential fit proposed by Price; and finally, a very high concentration of citations can be observed during the 1990s. In this context, the MH procedure is still being utilized and studied, thus several developments and applications may appear in the future, representing new theoretical, empirical, and simulation publications.