Bibliometric analysis of research topics in ESP (2010–2020): A comparative study of the journals ESPJ and CJESP

Abstract

This bibliometric study compared research topics reported in English for Specific Purposes: An International Research Journal (ESPJ) and Chinese Journal of ESP (CJESP) between 2010 and 2020. Research topics were represented by i) frequently researched topics and ii) clusters of research topics. Frequently researched topics were investigated by co-word analysis based on author keywords of 278 and 274 research articles in these two journals, and clusters of research topics were investigated by bibliometric mapping software VosViewer. The key findings were as follows: i) Regarding frequently researched topics, ‘EAP’, ‘ESP’, ‘academic writing’, and ‘genre analysis’ were shared topics. However, ‘word lists’ and ‘lexical bundles’ were frequently researched in ESPJ but not in CJESP, whereas ‘curriculum design’, ‘EGAP related to college English’, and ‘translation’ were frequently researched in CJESP but not in ESPJ; ii) regarding clusters of research topics, ESPJ featured textual analysis in ‘EAP’ and ‘professional communication’, while CJESP reported on ‘ESP teaching’, ‘curriculum design’, and ‘material development’. Both journals discussed needs analysis. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Keywords

• ESP
• keywords co-occurrence analysis
• research topics
• English for Specific Purposes: An International Research Journal (ESPJ)
• Chinese Journal of ESP (CJESP)