Publication trends in physical education and sports-related inclusion: A bibliometric analysis

The aim of this study is to reveal the bibliometric trends of academic publications concerning inclusion in the fields of physical education and sports between 2001 and 2025. The Web of Science (WoS) databases were used as the primary data source. During the literature search, the keywords “Physical Education” or “Sports” or “Physical Education Teacher” or “Sports Teacher” or “Physical Education and Sports Teacher” and “Inclusion” were queried within the Topic field, yielding a total of 20.211 publications. These publications were analyzed without imposing any language or document-type restrictions. Within the scope of the analysis, bibliometric evaluations were conducted regarding the distribution of publications by year, countries, authors, researchers, subject categories, document types, publication languages, and publishers. The findings indicate a marked increase in publication volume, particularly from the 2010s onward, with an accelerated rise after 2020. At the country level, Japan and the United States have made the largest contributions. In the categorical distribution, Sport Sciences, Orthopedics, and Surgery ranked among the top categories, and articles and reviews constituted the dominant document types. Additionally, the vast majority of the publications were produced in English. In conclusion, studies on inclusion within physical education and sports have gained significant momentum worldwide in recent years, with a notable concentration at the intersection of sports sciences, health sciences, and educational sciences. These findings illuminate current research trends in the field and provide guidance for future scholarly work.