Digital Technologies in Bioscience Education (2015–2024): A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Digital technologies for teaching (DTT) have emerged as a strategic area of ​​interest in the field of education research. Although bibliometric studies have broadly mapped trends in digital education, no one has systematically analyzed its application in biosciences pedagogy or teaching. The aim of this study was to conduct a bibliometric analysis to gain a better understanding of research about DTT, specifically for teaching science and biology, over the past decade (from 2015 to 2024). Scientific publications on the use of DTT in biosciences education were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. We analyzed the metadata of the 167 records, including publication year, journals, author keywords, research areas, author affiliations, countries and most cited articles. The results showed a growing trend in the number of publications and an annual average of 16.70 records, with the highest rate of publications in journals in the field of anatomy. The authors are predominantly from USA institutions, and the analysis of collaboration networks revealed a high degree of isolation among research groups. The most frequent keywords were Virtual Reality, Anatomy Education, and Medical Education. The identified studies mostly discuss practices developed at the undergraduate level. We conclude that there are still critical gaps in understanding how these studies are being conducted within educational contexts. Notably, there is a need for more research focused on the development of new digital tools, beyond those that merely aim to test their effectiveness.