Mapping the Gamification in Higher Education Publications: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends

Gamification is the process of applying game elements and principles that motivate individuals and involve the use of more enjoyable game design techniques. It makes a task more meaningful, interactive and beneficial to the participants who participate in this activity and this game can attract the interest and enthusiasm of the players. This study aims to explore gamification research-related publishing patterns and rank the most used author keywords in the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. The eminent software, ScientoPy and VOSviewer, are used to run and execute relevant publication data retrieved from Scopus and WoS. The results showed a positive trend in the growth of gamification literature in both databases since 2011. The top three research areas that dominate this topic are “computer science”, “education & educational research”, and “engineering”. Based on the country analysis, United States has become an active publisher, followed by Spain and Germany. Importantly, this study emphasised the scholarly communication practices prevalent in gamification research have impressively propagated. The trends will assist researchers in recognising the various fields in identifying the core areas, proactive institutions, and productive authors published in this knowledge for supplementary investigation. Besides, by examining the most popular keywords, the results of this study enable researchers to discover the possibility for future research that may be conducted, particularly concerning the annual growth rates, which have been trending in the last five years.