Research Landscape on Student Suicide: A Bibliometric and Visual Analysis of 62 Years (1959-2021)

Abstract

Background: To guide and provide orientation to research on student suicide, this study aimed to analyze the research status on student suicide with the help of bibliometric analysis. Utilising bibliometric methodology, this study complements existing literature by giving a comprehensive, reliable thematic representation of this topic. Method: A Scopus search was done and all published research papers were reviewed. A total of 187 papers published between 1959 and 2021 were analyzed. We identified the most influential journals in this field, the most prolific nations and institutions, as well as the years with the most publications, the most cited papers, notable authors, and most researched areas, It was followed by use of the VOSviewer software (version 1.6.18) to construct and visualize the bibliometric networks like co-authorship network map, inter-country co-authorship network map, and keywords co-occurrences network maps. Results: The analysis reveals the current research trend where the number of publications on ‘student suicide’ reflects an overall upward trend over the years, suggesting that research on student suicidology is fast evolving but the pace is slow. The maximum publications were in the year 2020. The United States made the largest contribution (n = 85). The most productive institution was the University of Rochester, New York (n = 10). Allan J Schwartz was the most prolific author, with nine research papers. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy (n = 13) was the journal and Medicine (n = 118) was the discipline with the highest number of publications. Conclusion: The study potentially has important implications for designing more comprehensive screening and assessment tools for suicide risk. Future work should pay more attention to developing effective intervention programs for students. The results also highlight the need for more research work on student suicidology. More research in this area is needed to create awareness among students. Consequently, this study can be a big critique and torch bearer at the same time.