A Scoping Review with Bibliometric Analysis of Para-Rowing: State of the Art and Future Directions

Abstract

Para-rowing is a format of rowing practiced by people with different types of disabilities, thanks to adapted equipment set-ups and regulations. Para-rowing made its debut recently at the 2008 Paralympic Games. According to the mandate of the “International Paralympic Committee”, para-rowers should be enabled to pursue sporting excellence. Therefore, rigorous research is needed in terms of well-designed, high-quality studies. To the best of our knowledge, there are no systematic appraisals of the body of scholarly evidence in the field of para-rowing. As such, a scoping review enhanced by bibliometric analyses was carried out to provide a comprehensive synthesis of knowledge related to para-rowing for the perusal of practitioners and athletes. By mining eighteen major databases, 17 studies were retained in the present review. The included studies were found to focus on a range of aspects involving health, the etiology of injuries (n = 5), psychological and physiological responses (n = 5), performance, biomechanical analysis (n = 4), and new analytical approaches for kinematic assessments and predictions of mechanical outputs in para-rowers (n = 3). The scholarly community on para-rowing consists of 78 researchers, 16 (20.51%) of whom are highly interconnected. The most prolific author was Smoljanović T., from Croatia, with three items/documents. In total, 93.6% of scholars have authored one single document. Topological features indicated a highly fragmented and dispersed, poorly connected community characterized by a high number of clusters and a low strength of connections. In terms of publication years, the first scholarly article dates back to 2008, with four articles (23.5%) published in the current year, showing an increasing interest in this para-sports discipline. Finally, gaps in current research on para-rowing were identified in terms of overlooked topics, including sports nutrition, doping, and psychological aspects in para-rowers other than those with visual impairment.

Adaptive Shooting Disciplines: A Scoping Review of the Literature with Bibliometric Analysis

“…and L.P.). Citations were exported and dealt with by means of the "Research Information Systems" (RIS) file format [40,41]. Duplicate items were removed using open-source citation management software (Zotero version 6.0.30 for Windows, Corporation for Digital Scholarship).…”

“…VOSviewer version 1.6.18, Gephi version 0.10.1, and Cytoscape version 3.9.1 were utilised for bibliometric data extraction, processing, and graph/network visualisation [40,41]. These graphs/networks were, subsequently, investigated from a quantitative perspective, by calculating an array of various indicators, namely, (i) the count of scholars (authors and coauthors in the bibliographic graph/network); (ii) the number of countries represented in the network; (iii) the number of publications per author or research organisation, both in terms of absolute figures and as a percentage of the total; (iv) the quantity of separate connected components, serving as an indicator of network connectivity; (v) the mean number of adjacent nodes for each node in the network; (vi) the total count of links connecting nodes in the network; (vii) the overall strength of connections between nodes, also known as the total edge weight; (viii) the length of various paths within the network, including the shortest paths (i.e., distance) and the average shortest path length (i.e., characteristic path length), along with other related parameters; (ix) the network's diameter (the longest shortest path) and radius (the shortest longest path); (x) the density of the network, indicating how connected it is; (xi) the variation in connectivity across the network, often referred to as network heterogeneity; (xii) the extent to which a network is centralised around certain nodes; (xiii) the number of scholar clusters, also known as scholarly communities, within the network; (xiv) the count of research organisation or institution clusters or communities within the network; and (xv) the clustering coefficient, which measures the level of connectivity among a node's neighbours in the network.…”

Sports and Special Populations: Training Physiology in Health and Sports Performance

“…The academic community of para-rowing was found to consist of 78 researchers, 16 (20.51%) of whom were highly interconnected. The study identified gaps in areas such as sports nutrition, doping, and psychological aspects among para-rowers who are not visually impaired [26]. The same Italian group evaluated paralympic powerlifting (PP) through a scoping literature review enhanced by a bibliometric analysis using large databases.…”