Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Production on Nursing Research in the Web of Science

Abstract

The fundamental pillars of nursing science—nursing care, management, and teaching and research—are in constant evolution. The adaptation of Spanish nursing to the European Higher Education Area has promoted nursing research. Over the past few years, several institutions have made official statements concerning the difficulty of finding teaching staff for university nursing degrees. This is closely linked to the production of research, given that minimum criteria must be met for university teacher accreditation. The goal of this study is to analyze scientific production in nursing, nursing research and teaching in The Web of Science in order to establish how this is progressing and to gain further insight into the field of academic nursing. A total of 34,497 documents were analyzed using the Bibliometrix software version 4.1.0. The results reveal an increase in nursing research over time. Most of this is published in English and mainly focuses on specific nursing areas, such as oncology or psychiatry. Spain occupies the eighth place worldwide in nursing research. In spite of this position, the data suggest that other factors are blocking the accreditation of university teachers of nursing in Spain. They also reflect the need to encourage nursing research in this setting in the future.