A Bibliometric Analysis of Scientific Publications on Cultural-Historical Psychology from 2010 to 2020: Dynamics, Geography, and Key Ideas

Abstract

Background. This paper presents the results of a study into the breadth, dynamics, and diversity of the interdisciplinary branch of cultural-historical psychology. The scatter of thematic areas within the cultural-historical approach indicates the urgent need to continue a systematic and holistic analysis of research related to cultural-historical topics in the context of its various directions and research groups. Design. A bibliometric analysis of scientific publications indexed by the Web of Science CC was carried out for the 2010–2020 period . Our previous bibliographic study (Rubtsov et al., 2019) revealed that the number of publications on cultural-historical psychology and citations of them, has recently increased, although unevenly. Results. According to our results, the number of publications on cultural-historical psychology is growing unevenly; publications from Russia and the United States made up almost equal shares of the sample, and third place was taken by England, followed by Finland and Sweden. The top 10 journals fell into two subject areas: Psychology and Education and Educational Research. With regard to the geographical location of the publishing houses of the top 10 journals, the highest number was taken by England and Russia. The dominant areas of research were teacher education, university education, and learning activity. Conclusion. The most frequently used terms were Vygotsky, activity approach, CHAT, CHP, ZPD, and learning activity.

Keywords

• scientometric analysis
• culturalhistorical psychology
• activity approach
• l.s. vygotsky
• web of science
• scientometrics