Bibliometric Analysis of the Publications Made in STEM Education Area

This study involves bibliometric analysis of the scientific researches published in STEM education subject area to find out general layout of the scientific knowledge and scientific communication structure of the field using an objective method, driven from the data. For this purpose, 2,313 studies about STEM education, published between 1992 and 2017 were analyzed bibliometrically and the trend of the last 26 years was revealed. Web of Science Core Collection database was scanned for “STEM Education” keyword and bibliometric data belonging to the studies were obtained. The studies were analyzed under the following sub-headings: number of publications per year, types of publications, language of publications, citation analysis, country collaborations, Common Citation Networks and concept-topic tendencies. Social network analysis was employed for determining common citation networks and concept-topic tendencies. The authors and works, which have been commonly shown as reference by the studies included in the data set, were also analyzed within the scope of the study. Thereby, we aimed to identify main authors who have conducted researches in the subject area and the works that they have performed, as well as to determine the interactions between them. In addition, a word analysis was also conducted within the study in order to determine the concepts used in the researches published in STEM education area and covered in the data set. As a result of the analysis, collaborations and relationship patterns were visualized in the form of cognitive maps. In addition, the layout of the country collaborations, journals, authors, publications and concepts that form the sources of the citations in the network was evaluated and several citation bursts for the authors, works and significant journals, in which these works have been published, were identified