Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 7 no. 9 (2026)

Mapping Physical Education Research In Southeast Asia: A Bibliometric Analysis Of Trends And Productivity

Rawil Paul Abad

Discipline: sport and exercise sciences

 

Abstract:

Physical education (PE) research in Southeast Asia has expanded rap-idly, yet its regional distribution, leading contributors, and conceptual development have not been mapped in a single study. This biblio-metric analysis examined 470 English-language Scopus-indexed pub-lications issued from 1955 through 2024. Descriptive performance analysis and science-mapping procedures were conducted with Bibli-ometrix/Biblioshiny and VOSviewer to assess annual output, country and institutional productivity, authors, sources, collaboration pat-terns, keyword structure, and thematic change. Publication output ac-celerated after 2015 and peaked in 2022. Indonesia contributed 182 publications (38.7%), followed by Malaysia (73), Singapore (70), the Philippines (68), Vietnam (38), and Thailand (36); Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar contributed one publication each. Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, and Singapore's Na-tional Institute of Education were the most productive affiliations. Jo-seph T. Lobo, Wang Chee Keng John, and Edi Setiawan were the lead-ing authors, while the International Journal of Human Movement and Sports Sciences, Retos, and the Journal of Physical Education and Sport were the leading sources. Keyword mapping identified four connected areas: health and epidemiology, pedagogy and learning, psychosocial and demographic concerns, and exercise science and performance. The overlay map indicates a gradual movement from health-surveillance topics toward motivation, physical literacy, online learning, and pedagogical innovation. These results document a grow-ing but uneven regional field and support stronger ASEAN collabora-tion, targeted capacity building, and broader database coverage in fu-ture assessments.



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