The Evolution of Leadership Research in Higher Education for Two Decades (1995-2014): A Bibliometric and Content Analysis

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to examine the leadership research in higher education in order to shed light on its development during the last two decades by revealing the evolving trends in research on leadership in higher education, the most prominent scholars working on related research, the most popular topics in related research, and the countries in which the related studies are based. Bibliometric method was employed in the analysis of the original research and review papers published in five prominent higher education journals between 1995 and 2014: Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education and The Review of Higher Education. The results of this bibliometric analysis show that the majority of the related articles come from three countries: the U.S.A., the UK and Australia. It is also found that the leadership research in higher education is still very scarce and has not shown any meaningful increase during the last two decades. In addition, content analysis is used to provide more in-depth information about the topical focus, purpose and methodology of the selected articles. The results of content analyses are discussed in detail, and suggestions for the future research are provided.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Means that any word starting with leader (e.g. leaders and leadership) was included in the search.

2. Actual citations of these articles might be much higher. However, we included citations according to WoS data since our all analyses are based on WoS.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Murat Esen

Murat Esen is an assistant professor in the Economic and Administrative Sciences at Izmir Katip Celebi University, Turkey. His research interests include scientometrics and bibliometrics research, higher education, and leadership. He is currently involved in several research studies in various areas within his research interests.

Mehmet Sukru Bellibas

Mehmet Sukru Bellibas is currently working as an associate professor in the Department of Educational Sciences at Adiyaman University, Turkey. He received his PhD in K-12 Educational Administration from College of Education, Michigan State University, USA in 2014. His research interests include comparative and international education, educational leadership, school improvement and teacher professional learning. His research has been published in many international journals, such as Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, Journal of Educational Administration, International Journal of Educational Management and International Journal of Educational Research.

Sedat Gumus

Sedat Gumus is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Sciences at Necmettin Erbakan University, Turkey. His research interests include comparative and international education, leadership in education, educational policy, and higher education. His works have been published in various international journals, including Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, Educational Management Administration & Leadership, Higher Education Policy, and International Review of Education.