Mapping global research related to international students: a scientometric review

Although international students have been a notable research topic in higher education for more than 100 years, to date only one qualitative literature review has been published on the topic. In order to help researchers better understand the intellectual landscape of global research related to inte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Higher education 2020-09, Vol.80 (3), p.415-433
Main Authors: Jing, Xiaoli, Ghosh, Ratna, Sun, Zhaohui, Liu, Qiang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acculturation
Adjustment
Authors
College Graduates
College Students
Cultural Awareness
Education
Employability
Employment Potential
Foreign Countries
Foreign Students
Health problems
Higher Education
Language acquisition
Literature reviews
Mapping
Mental Disorders
Mental Health
Migration
ORIGINAL PAPERS
Periodicals
Research centers
Research Reports
Satisfaction
Scientometrics
Second Language Learning
Second languages
Social Integration
Sociocultural factors
Student Attitudes
Student Mobility
Student Satisfaction
Students
Students, Foreign
Topics
Trend Analysis
Web Sites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
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Summary:Although international students have been a notable research topic in higher education for more than 100 years, to date only one qualitative literature review has been published on the topic. In order to help researchers better understand the intellectual landscape of global research related to international students, we conducted a quantitative scientometric review of 3685 relevant journal articles published between 1900 and 2018 and indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. The findings show that the number of articles published in the field has increased rapidly, especially since 2006, and this expansion has been led primarily by Australia, the U.K., and the USA, as these three countries not only produced most of the high-yielding research institutions and productive authors, but also published a majority of the prolific journals. Among the numerous topics discussed in these selected articles, cross-cultural adjustment, mental health problems, second-language acquisition, intercultural development, and student migration were most frequently studied, while social integration, graduate employability, and student satisfaction have emerged as new trends. These results complement the existing qualitative literature review from a quantitative perspective and provide valuable insights into and implications for global research related to international students.
ISSN:0018-1560
1573-174X
DOI:10.1007/s10734-019-00489-y