Publication trends on sports sociology: Global perspectives and emerging themes
Abstract
This study examined the depiction of publication trends and the transformation of scholarly discourse within sports sociology publications. The investigation utilised the Scopus and WoS databases to compile a comprehensive list of sports sociology publications. Employing ScientoPy and VOSviewer, the study dynamically constructed science maps and visualisation networks. In the Scopus database, there were 516 publications, and in the WoS, 216, resulting in 732 publications, constituting 79.13% of the overall count between 1990 and 2022. Sports Sciences emerged as the predominant field with 119 publications, and the most prolific source title over the three decades was the International Review for the Sociology of Sport. The United States and Germany stood out as the top two countries, each contributing over 100 publications. The keyword “sports sociology” demonstrated close associations with “development,” “athlete,” and “physical education,” particularly evident since 2015. This study is poised to lay the groundwork for future endeavours to enrich and invigorate sports sociology research. It underscores the need for sports sociologists to delve into novel insights, including the interplay between sports sociology and mental health, gender disparities, sports injury management, and artificial intelligence. The intriguing social dimensions of physical education and sports training are underscored for their significance in shaping daily human activities, behaviours, and emotions.
Downloads
References
Abd Aziz, F. S., Abdullah, K. H., & Samsudin, S. (2021). Bibliometric analysis of behavior-based safety (BBS): three decades publication trends. Webology, 18 (Special Issue on Information Retrieval and Web Search), 278-293. https://doi.org/10.14704/web/v18si02/web18072
Abdullah, K. H. (2022). Publication trends in biology education: a bibliometric review of 63 Years. Journal of Turkish Science Education, 19(2), 465–480. https://doi.org/10.36681/tused.2022.131
Abdullah, K. H., & Othman, S. Z. (2022). A bibliometric mapping of five decades research in telecommuting. International Journal of Information Science and Management, 20(2), 229-245.
Abdullah, K. H., & Sofyan, D. (2023). Machine learning in safety and health research: a scientometric analysis. International Journal of Information Science and Management, 21(1), 17-37. https://doi.org/10.22034/ijism.2022.1977763.0
Abdulsalam, Z. S., Abdulameer, W. H., & Hamza, J. S. (2022). Analysis of the history of ball sports. SPORT TK-Revista EuroAmericana de Ciencias del Deporte, 11(3), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.6018/sportk.535351
Al Husaeni, D. F., & Nandiyanto, A. B. D. (2022). Bibliometric using VOSviewer with Publish or Perish (using google scholar data): From step-by-step processing for users to the practical examples in the analysis of digital learning articles in pre and post Covid-19 pandemic. ASEAN Journal of Science and Engineering, 2(1), 19-46. https://doi.org/10.17509/ajse.v2i1.37368
Alkhaleefah, A., Renardo, Q., & Duffy, V. G. (2021, July). Injury Prevention for Transportation Safety: A Bibliometric Analysis. In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 205-218). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90966-6_15
Allison, R., & Love, A. (2023). “It should have been named women’s rights… I was displeased”: Teaching about gender ideology in the sport sociology classroom. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 32, 100413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2022.100413
Atkinson, M. (2019). Sport and risk culture. In The Suffering Body in Sport. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Bondin, V. I., Lyubetsky, N. P., Schalohyan, S. I., Gerasimov, M. V., & Samygin, S. I. (2020, March). Sport in the context of globalisation. In 13th International Scientific and Practical Conference-Artificial Intelligence Anthropogenic Nature Vs. Social Origin (pp. 237-247). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39319-9_28
Broch, T. B. (2022). The cultural sociology of sport: a study of sports for sociology?. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-022-00177-y
Carrión-Mero, P., Montalván-Burbano, N., Herrera-Franco, G., Domínguez-Granda, L., Bravo-Montero, L., & Morante-Carballo, F. (2022). Research trends in groundwater and stable isotopes. Water, 14(19), 3173. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14193173
Crossman, Ashley. (2021, February 16). What’s the Relationship Between Sports and Society? Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/sports-sociology-3026288
Darnell, S. C., & Millington, R. (2019). Social justice, sport, and sociology: a position statement. Quest, 71(2), 175-187. https://doi.org/10.1080/00336297.2018.1545681
Dart, J. (2014). Sports review: A content analysis of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport, the Journal of Sport and Social Issues and the Sociology of Sport Journal across 25 years. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 49(6), 645-668. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690212465736
Dashti, A. A., Haynes, R., & Murad, H. A. (2022). The Impact of Media Globalization of English Football: The Kuwaiti Experience. International Journal of Sport Communication, 15(2), 158-166. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsc.2022-0025
Donthu, N., Kumar, S., Mukherjee, D., Pandey, N., & Lim, W. M. (2021). How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 133, 285-296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070
Eigenschenk, B., Thomann, A., McClure, M., Davies, L., Gregory, M., Dettweiler, U., & Inglés, E. (2019). Benefits of outdoor sports for society. A systematic literature review and reflections on evidence. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(6), 937. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16060937
Ellegaard, O., & Wallin, J. A. (2015). The bibliometric analysis of scholarly production: how great is the impact? Scientometrics, 105(3), 1809–1831.
Evans, A. B., & Pfister, G. U. (2021). Women in sports leadership: A systematic narrative review. International review for the sociology of sport, 56(3), 317-342. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690220911842
Evans, A. B., & Thiel, A. (2019). Speaking beyond borders in the sociology of sport: some points for consideration. European Journal for Sport and Society, 16(3), 205-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2019.1666223
Foldesi, G. S. (2015). Assessing the sociology of sport: On world inequalities and unequal development. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 50(4-5), 442-447. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690214547142
Golia, A. J., & Teubner, G. (2021). Societal constitutionalism: background, theory, debates. ICL Journal, 15(4), 357-411. https://doi.org/10.1515/icl-2021-0023
Harker, J. L., & Saffer, A. J. (2018). Mapping a subfield’s sociology of science: a 25-year network and bibliometric analysis of the knowledge construction of sports crisis communication. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 42(5), 369-392. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723518790011
Hovden, J. (2006). The gender order as a policy issue in sport: A study of Norwegian sports organisations. Nordic journal of women’s studies, 14(1), 41-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/08038740600727127
Kavoura, A., & Kokkonen, M. (2021). What do we know about the sporting experiences of gender and sexual minority athletes and coaches? A scoping review. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 14(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/1750984X.2020.1723123
Kosiewicz, J. (2009). Sociology of sport in Europe: Historical and research perspective. International Quarterly of Sport Science, 1(1), 3-38.
Maheshwari, V., Giraldi, J. D. M. E., & Montanari, M. G. (2019). Investigating residents’ attitudes of 2016 Olympic Games: examining socio-cultural, economic and environmental dimensions. Journal of Place Management and Development, 12(3), 291-313. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-08-2018-0059
Malcolm, D. (2014). The social construction of the sociology of sport: a professional project. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 49(1), 3-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690212452362
Mansfield, L., & Velija, P. (2022). Process-Figurational Sociology and Gender Relations in Sport Management. In Gender and Diversity in Sport Management. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
McNamee, M. J., Coveney, C. M., Faulkner, A., & Gabe, J. (2018). Ethics, evidence based sports medicine, and the use of platelet rich plasma in the English premier league. Health Care Analysis, 26(4), 344-361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-017-0345-7
Mukherjee, D., Lim, W. M., Kumar, S., & Donthu, N. (2022). Guidelines for advancing theory and practice through bibliometric research. Journal of Business Research, 148, 101-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.042
Naragati, P., Hosatti, L., & Ramateerth, P. R. (2021). Importance of Sociology in Sports. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts, 9(2), 3321–3326.
Nixon, H. L. (1991). Sport sociology that matters: Imperatives and challenges for the 1990s. Sociology of Sport Journal, 8(3), 281-294. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.8.3.281
Pradhan, P. (2016). Science mapping and visualisation tools used in bibliometric & scientometric studies: An overview. INFLIBNET Newsletter, 23(4), 19-33.
Rakhimov, M. F. (2022). Physical education and sport as a social phenomenon. Herald pedagogiki. Nauka i Praktyka, 2(2), 28-30.
Rowe, D. (2020). Subjecting pandemic sport to a sociological procedure. Journal of sociology, 56(4), 704-713. https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783320941284
Ruiz-Rosero, J., Ramírez-González, G., & Viveros-Delgado, J. (2019). Software survey: ScientoPy, a scientometric tool for topics trend analysis in scientific publications. Scientometrics, 121(2), 1165-1188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03213-w
Ruiz-Rosero, J., Ramirez-Gonzalez, G., Williams, J. M., Liu, H., Khanna, R., & Pisharody, G. (2017). Internet of things: A scientometric review. Symmetry, 9(12), 1-32. https://doi.org/10.3390/sym9120301
Schofield, K. L., Thorpe, H., & Sims, S. T. (2022). Feminist sociology confluences with sport science: Insights, contradictions, and silences in interviewing elite women athletes about low energy availability. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 46(3), 223-246. https://doi.org/10.1177/01937235211012171
Seippel, Ø. (2018). Topics and trends: 30 years of sociology of sport. European Journal for Sport and Society, 15(3), 288-307. https://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2018.1475098
Sofyan, D., Abdullah, K. H., & Hafiar, H. (2022). The philosophy of sport and physical education: Four decade publication trends via scientometric evaluation. Physical Education Theory and Methodology, 22(3), 437-449. https://doi.org/10.17309/tmfv.2022.3.20
Stempel, C. (2020). Sport as high culture in the USA. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(8), 1167-1191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690219870067
Tan, C. (2022). Research on the path of sports sociology curriculum from the interdisciplinary perspective. Mobile Information Systems, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/3415257
Tian, E., & Wise, N. (2020). An Atlantic divide? Mapping the knowledge domain of European and North American-based sociology of sport, 2008–2018. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 55(8), 1029-1055. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690219878370
University of South Florida. (2022, September 12). University of South Florida rises to its highest position ever in U.S. News & World Report rankings. Retrieved January 11, 2023, from https://www.usf.edu/news/2022/university-of-south-florida-rises-to-its-highest-position-ever-in-us-news-and-world-report-rankings.aspx
Zahedi, Z., & Van Eck, N. J. (2015). Identifying topics of interest of Mendeley users using the text mining and overlay visualisation functionality of VOSviewer. In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators. https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/48264
Zirin, D. (2008). Calling sports sociology off the bench. Contexts, 7(3), 28-31.
The works and papers that are published in this Journal are subject to the following terms:
1. The Publication Service of the University of Murcia (the publisher) has the Publication Rights (Copyright) to the published papers and works, and favors and permits the reusing of the same under the license indicated in point 2.
© Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Murcia, 2013
2. The papers and works are to be published in the digital edition of the Journal under the license Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Obra Derivada 3.0 España (legal text). The copying, using, spreading, transmitting and publicly displaying of the papers, works or publication are permitted as long as: i) the authors and original sources (Journal, publisher and URL of the publication) are quoted; ii) it is not used for commercial benefit; iii) the existence and specifications of this users license are mentioned.
3. Conditions of Self-Archiving. It is permitted and encouraged that the authors spread electronically the pre-print (before printing) and/or post-print (the revised, evaluated and accepted) versions of their papers or works before their publication since this favors their circulation and early diffusion and therefore can help increase their citation and quotation, and also there reach through the academic community.
The works and papers that are published in this Journal are subject to the following terms:
1. The Publication Service of the University of Murcia (the publisher) has the Publication Rights (Copyright) to the published papers and works, and favors and permits the reusing of the same under the license indicated in point 2.
© Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Murcia, 2013
2. The papers and works are to be published in the digital edition of the Journal under the license Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial-Sin Obra Derivada 3.0 España (legal text). The copying, using, spreading, transmitting and publicly displaying of the papers, works or publication are permitted as long as: i) the authors and original sources (Journal, publisher and URL of the publication) are quoted; ii) it is not used for commercial benefit; iii) the existence and specifications of this users license are mentioned.
3. Conditions of Self-Archiving. It is permitted and encouraged that the authors spread electronically the pre-print (before printing) and/or post-print (the revised, evaluated and accepted) versions of their papers or works before their publication since this favors their circulation and early diffusion and therefore can help increase their citation and quotation, and also there reach through the academic community.
