Research Topics and Collaboration in Human Resource Development Review 2012–2021: A Bibliometrics Approach

Abstract

In celebrating HRDR’s 20 years of publication, this study aims to shed light on research trends in the journal and future research needs by examining 10 years of publications from a structural perspective. We used three complementary computational methods to find major research trends and themes including keyword network analysis, topic modeling, and bibliographic coupling. This paper presents the findings on the research themes, structural coherence, and semantic relevance based on clusters formed by normalized distance measures. Connectivity, co-appearances, and citations are important forms of scholarly communication that represent the body of knowledge in the field. Our findings indicate that research topics greatly expanded beyond the early HRD research topics of learning and development to include various topics related to diversity, critical HRD, and equity issues in organizations and society. We also examined the author-institution-keywords affiliation network and the authors-collaboration network to suggest how scholars can collaborate more in the future.

Reflection on the Past Three Years (2020-2023)

“…Five HRD journals ( Advances in Developing Human Resources , European Journal of Training and Development , HRDI , Human Resource Development Quarterly , and HRDR ) publish articles on: formal/informal/organizational learning, training & development, career development, organization development, leadership development, learning/training transfer, diversity, critical HRD, and technology (Cho & Zachmeier, 2015; Shirmohammadi et al, 2021; Yoon & Chae, 2022), all of which are common HRD topics at individual, team, and organizational levels but not beyond. There is a strong need to expand the boundary-spanning HRD research to fill the gap between research and practice through embracing more socially and globally impactful and actionable research topics for theory building in HRD.…”

“…Reaction toWang and Doty (Russ-Eft, 2022) 2. Reaction to Wang and Doty(Yoon, 2022) 3. Reaction toWang and Doty (Poell, 2022) 4.…”

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice of Engagement: Toward a Collaborative Human Resource Development

“…From Kahn's theory to contemporary business practice, the essence of the engagement discussion has inherently relied on employee performance and organization development, which resonates strongly with the target of HRD. Thus, it is not surprising that engagement is positioned at the center of HRD research and practice (Yoon & Chae, 2022), and vice versa.…”

Indigenous Research in HRD: Perspectives and a Call for Contributions

“…The picture becomes more unsettling if we look closer at who is publishing in major HRD journals. Research collaboration observed in papers published at HRD journals has been centered in the U.S. and Europe, and no partnership has existed among scholars outside the U.S. (Yoon & Chae, 2022). Even when I have seen many non-US authors’ papers in the literature, they, including me, were from doctoral programs in the U.S.…”