The Trend of Leadership Research in Higher Education: A Bibliometric Overview and Visualization

Abstract

This study examines leadership research in higher education from 2008 to 2022. A total of 268 important publications were systematically retrieved and bibliometrically analyzed from the Scopus database. The present study employed Bibliometrix to analyse leadership research trends. To represent the general pattern and structure of leadership research in higher education, the final analysis incorporates bibliometric indicators, e.g., annual scientific production, most prolific journal, most prolific author, country and institutions, most influential articles, co-citation, and author’s keywords. This bibliometric investigation revealed that the US, Australia, and the UK produce the most relevant publications. It is also observed that there is still a severe manque of leadership research in higher education, and there is no appreciable growth in this field from 2008 to 2022. To give more in-depth information about the trend topics and important fields of leadership research in higher education, co-citation, and the author’s keyword analysis are also employed. The study offers valuable insight into leadership research in higher education for theoretical and practical advancements for further studies.