A bibliometric analysis of primary science education in scopus database

Abstract

The current bibliometric analysis investigates the evolution of research on primary science education, emphasising on author contributions, country-based production, institutional engagement, and co-occurrence analysis. The biblioshiny in the R language was used to examine the data, and the Garza-Reyes was utilised to ensure the validity and reliability of the data. In this case, the total of 326 publication were selected to be reported in the bibliometric analysis. Based on the finding, the country with the most publications is the USA, with a steadily publications and reach its peak in 2025. Another contributive countries were China and United Kingdom. The dominance of the USA was further emphasised in the most contributive affiliation, where Florida State University (USA) and the University of California (USA) were found to be the most relevant affiliations, followed by Deakin University from Australia and Tufts University from the USA. In terms of the most contributive authors, Looi Ck and Wong LH were the most influential authors with research focused on the integration of technology in primary science education. Another contributing author was Criado AM emphasizing on the primary science teachers comprehension and competency. The co-occurrence analysis confirms the curriculum in primary science education is the most relevant topic discussed in the literature. Similarly, the thematic map found the most important and current research topic was curricula and science education. The multiple correspondence analysis emphasized teaching, students, curricula, computer science education, mathematics education, and sustainable development are found in the top right quadrant, indicating the significance of the curriculum associated with other keywords. It was further emphasised with co-occurrence analysis that the cluster STEM & Curriculum Integration are the key keywords in the blue cluster, indicating the significance of science curriculum in research related to primary science education.