The Bibliometric Analysis of Studies on Physical Literacy for a Healthy Life

Abstract

This article empirically provides a global overview of physical literacy, which allows for the understanding of the structure of the epistemic community studying literacy for healthy living. Publications registered in the Web of Science are analyzed using bibliometrics (spatial, productive, and relational) based on data from 391 records, published between 2007 and April 2022, applying five bibliometric laws and using VOSviewer software for data and metadata processing and visualization. In terms of results, we observe an exponential increase in scientific production in the last decade, with a concentration of scientific discussion on physical literacy in seven journals; a production distributed in 46 countries situated on the five continents, but concentrated in Canada and the United States; co-authored research networks composed of 1256 researchers but with a production concentrated of around 2% of these, and an even smaller number of authors with high production and high impact. Finally, there are four thematic blocks that, although interacting, constitute three specific knowledge production communities that have been delineated over time in relation to health and quality of life, fitness and physical competence, education, and fundamental movement skills.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Physical Literacy Studies in Relation to Health of Children and Adolescents

“…This is in line with the results presented in [ 58 ], wherein the two main clusters were in line with those of the present paper. This was also analyzed in [ 39 ], in which similar results were obtained. All this may lead us to the idea that when we refer to PL, it is mostly with respect to the educational sphere and concerning school-age children.…”

“…The present study aimed to assess, in relation to health, pathology, and prevention or intervention measures performed, the trends in the scientific literature on PL among children and adolescents in a comprehensive and updated manner in an attempt to provide a general and practical overview to the scientific community. After examining the bibliometric studies on PL, only one study was found in which PL is analyzed at a general level, including with respect to some general aspects of health [ 39 ]. On the other hand, a scoping review that explored PL in the context of health was also found [ 57 ], along with a general mapping study where PL was analyzed from different perspectives, depending on the planned objectives [ 58 ].…”

“…Canada can be considered one of the greatest drivers of PL worldwide; accordingly, it is the country with the greatest body of research both on the topic addressed in this study and on PL in general [ 39 ]. This is because in Canada, most PL-related sectors (sports, recreation, PA, education, and public health) have embraced PL and are making it a core priority [ 56 ].…”

“…Thus, due to the currently growing interest in PL [ 39 ] and the importance of the topic in question, this study aimed to assess the current scientific literature on PL in relation to health, pathologies, and preventive programs or interventions performed among children and adolescents to provide the scientific community with a comprehensive and practical overview in an updated and thorough way via a bibliometric analysis of data and metadata from pre-existing specialized publications. Thus, the main objective of this study was to analyze the trends of annual publications in order to identify the most prolific and most-cited journals and co-authors and highlight the most-used keywords and the most relevant articles.…”

Mapping the Link between Climate Change and Mangrove Forest: A Global Overview of the Literature

“…Currently, bibliometric information with article metadata has been widely used as a tool for research-on-research performance and perspective [34][35][36][37][38]. Scientometric analysis is one of the methods to monitor emerging trends and research progress in selected areas.…”