Bibliometric Analysis of Scopus Publications Related to STEM and STEAM Research in the Context of Mathematics Education

Abstract

This article presents a bibliometric analysis of publications in Scopus with the keyword "STEM Mathematics" or "STEAM Mathematics" in the abstract or title. Scientific documents on a global scale, as well as specifically for Bulgaria, are analyzed according to: their types (conference proceedings, articles, book chapters, etc.); the subject areas they cover; their distribution by country; and the top ten most frequently cited publications. The period analyzed in this study spans from 2000 to 2024, encompassing all available publications globally (14,592 documents) and in Bulgaria (38 documents). Additionally, a cluster analysis was performed using the VOSviewer program, which created network maps of the most frequently used keywords and their connections. A strong increase in the number of publications on the subject in Scopus is observed internationally after 2011. In contrast, in Bulgaria, the number of publications remains small, with the first results appearing after 2015. For Bulgaria, the largest share of publications is in the field of "Computer Science", unlike the overall result, which shows the highest share in the field of "Social Sciences". In Bulgaria, cooperation between researchers from different fields in STEM and STEAM research, in the context of mathematics, is still not sufficiently realized. The goal is to track the development of interest in the topic, the main educational elements with which it is related, to show the current state within the selected scientific portal and to help orient researchers in communities, applications, connections, problems, perspectives and other elements related to STEM and STEAM in the context of mathematics education.