A Bibliometric Analysis of Work Stress Research: Three Decades (1992-2022) Publication Trends

Abstract

Work stress is an issue that always occurs in many organizations, especially in organizational management systems; thus, it should be well fostered. The responsibilities and obligations of the organization are aimed at reducing the possible problems of work stress and the total deterioration of employee performance by fostering motivation and enthusiasm among employees is very necessary. This study aims to explore work stress-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 work stress literature in both databases since 2008. The top three research areas that dominate this topic are “psychology”, “public, environmental and occupational health”, and “business and economics”. Based on the country analysis, the United States has become an active publisher, followed by United Kingdom and Germany. Importantly, this study emphasised the scholarly communication practices prevalent in work stress research have impressively propagated. The trends will assist researchers in recognising the various fields in identifying the core areas, proactive institutions, and core source titles 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.