Bibliometric Analysis of Studies on Adapted Physical Activity, Physical Education and Sports Concepts: An Example from The WoS Database

Abstract

In this study, the aim was to conduct a bibliometric analysis of articles discussing the concepts of "adapted physical education," "adapted physical activity," and "adapted sport" published between 2015 and 2023 in the Web of Science (WoS) database. For this purpose, a search was conducted using the keywords "Adapted Physical Education" OR "Adapted Physical Activity" OR "Adapted Sport" and selecting the "Topic" field, resulting in 195 articles remaining after exclusion criteria were applied, forming the sample group of the research. Web of Science analysis results were used for data analysis and the data were visualized using the VOSviewer program. Version 1.6.20 of VOSviewer was used in the study. The examined articles were classified based on the Web of Science science categories, the countries with the highest publication rates, authors, institutions, and journals, as well as the number of articles and citations between the specified years. Information was provided about the most cited articles. According to the research findings, Italy was the country with the highest publication rate, author Nyquist A., institution National Institute of Health and Medical Research (France), and the journal International Journal of Environmental Research And Public Health were identified as the leading contributors. The article titled "Provocations for Critical Disability Studies" was observed to be the most cited. The year 2022 was identified as having the highest number of articles and citations, and according to the WoS science categories, most articles were found to be written in the field of Sports Sciences.