Purpose This study aims to sketch a bibliometric portrait of the International Journal of Innovation Science (IJIS) and attempts to evaluate its publication patterns from 2011 to 2020 by unfolding the key aspects of its publication trends for the audience of the journal and scholars of bibliometric studies as well. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzes papers published in the IJIS from 2011 to 2020 by using the required bibliometric measures to analyze the key aspects of the publishing trends of IJIS. Findings This study finds that a total of 487 authors published 271 articles in IJIS during 2011–2020. The USA leads the table with 89 papers followed by India (29 papers) and China (26 papers). The degree of collaboration in IJIS ranged from 0.36 to 0.94. Moreover, this study finds that the keyword “design/methodology/approach” is the central theme of research in IJIS around which all other keywords revolve. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on the publication patterns of the IJIS over a period of ten years. Patterns of research output in 271 publications are comprehended and analyzed. For making a ten-year bibliometric study, the papers published before 2011 were excluded from the purview of research. Practical implications Readers of the IJIS, teachers and research scholars interested in bibliometric studies can benefit from insights into the scholarly papers published in IJIS from 2011 to 2020. Originality/value This study would provide the readers of IJIS to ascertain significant contributions, top cited papers, the most prolific authors, geographical distribution of papers, keyword co-occurrence and bibliographic coupling.