An Evaluation of the Publications in the Field of Geography Education: Bibliometric Analysis Based on the Web of Science Database

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine scientific publications about Geography Education in terms of bibliometric indicators. Case study method, one of the qualitative research methods, was applied in this study. The scanning range of bibliometric data obtained from the WoS database generated by Clarivate Analytics covers the dates between 1975 and March 2020. The bibliometric analysis technique was conducted in the study. As a result of the analyses, it was revealed that 559 of 64,874,978 studies registered in the WoS database between 1975 and 2020 were the studies related to Geography Education. It was also observed that 196 (35.06%) of these records were in the education / training research category. Through the analyses, it was concluded that the most common type of publication related to Geography Education was the articles with a total number of 196. Moreover, it is seen that approximately 106 of the published articles have been published during the years between 2016 and 2020. This rate indicates that the educational researches related to Geography Education have increased in recent years. In addition, at the end of the analyses, it was comprehended that there are 330 different authors contributing to the related field. It was determined that a total of 535 different keywords were utilized in 196 articles, and the most effective journal was the “Journal of Geography and Environmental Education”. Besides, it is observed that the researchers from 25 different countries have published some articles that contribute to the field. In this regard, the most active country is the United States, and it is respectively followed by Britain, Australia, and Turkey. That Turkey with 18 articles takes place at the 4th rank among the 25 different countries indicates that some comprehensive studies related to this field are carried out.