An Overview of Social Studies Articles in Turkey: Bibliometric Mapping Analysis

Abstract Introduction: This research applies a bibliometric analysis to articles that have been published in Turkey in the field of social studies. “Social studies” is a discipline that aims to develop a human model with certain features applicable both for researchers’ own countries and globally. In this context, individuals’ social, work, and domestic lives are considered fundamental. Thus, discovering the characteristics of studies on social studies could be useful to interested scholars or policy-makers for determining trends in the field. Methods: In this context, 168 articles from the Web of Science database were analyzed in bibliometric terms. Here, the keywords “social studies teaching,” or “social studies,” or “social studies education” were used when searching the Web of Science database, and Turkey was selected as the study location. Results: Results of the bibliometric analysis showed that the most productive universities in Turkey are Anadolu, Marmara, and Gazi Universities, and the most frequently used keywords on the topic are “social studies,” “social studies education,” and “citizenship education.” Moreover, the most-used words in the manuscripts’ abstracts are “level,” “Turkey,” “participant,” and “impact.” The most-cited authors (judged using co-citation analyses) are Yıldırım, Öztürk, and Creswell, and the most-cited journals (judged using co-citation analyses) are The Social Studies, Journal of Educational Psychology, and Eğitim ve Bilim. Discussion: When the articles in the field of social studies were analyzed by years, it was seen that the first one is published in 2007 and citations have occurred since 2009. It can be understood from the research results that words such as academic success, motivation and social justice keywords also have been recently used. It is understood that most of the journals are not specific to social studies and are general educational journals. Limitations: The only articles examined within the scope of the study were those found in the Web of Science database. This can be considered a limitation of this research. Conclusion: Considering that the most-cited authors, according to the results of the study, are included in the bibliographies of the studies related to this field, examining their works may be a useful guide for interested scholars. The majority of the journals included in the study were general education journals. It was also noted that the majority of the most-cited journals were based in Turkey.