The 100 most-cited articles on bibliotherapy: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT

Bibliotherapy is an important part of art therapy and many publications regarding bibliotherapy have been published in the past. However, there has none about the scientometric study to systematically analyze the development and emerging research trends on bibliotherapy. Therefore, we performed a scientometric investigation to describe trends of this theme. All publications related to bibliotherapy published from 1980 to 2020 were identified and selected from Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index of Web of Science Core Collection. VOSviewer was used to create collaborative network plots of countries, institutions, and authors and to perform cluster analysis of keywords. A total of 703 articles were searched, and we retrieved the 100 most cited articles published by 146 institutions from 15 countries in 57 academic journals. The United States occupied a leading position in the field of bibliotherapy and Linköping University was the most productive institution. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology was the most productive journal. Andersson G, Carlbring P, and Cuijpers P may have an important influence on bibliotherapy research. The applications in depression, anxiety, panic disorder, insomnia, and aphasia are the hot themes. This scientometric review provided a comprehensive understanding of the bibliotherapy research using quantitative and qualitative methods, which can provide references for researchers in the bibliotherapy field. As investigators continue to work, we look forward to the development of bibliotherapy efficacy and the implementation form and steps.

KEYWORDS:

• Scientometric
• bibliotherapy
• psychological therapy
• VOSviewer

Acknowledgments

None.

Authors’ contributions

Conceived and designed ZX, RL; conducted the eligible study collection, quality assessment, and data extraction, ZX, RL, ZCG, JYL, BL; interpreted the results, ZX; Methodology, LPG, XWL; Project administration, RL; Software, RL, ZYG; Supervision, KHY; Validation, ZX; Visualization, LPG; Writing – original draft, ZX; Writing – review & editing, ZX, KHY. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval and patient consent are not required since this is a review based on published studies.

Informed consent

All analyses were based on previously published studies; thus, no informed consent is required.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China. (No. 19ZDA142), and Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (20JR10RA350).Role of the Funding Source: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.