The Scientific Atlas of Performance: A Bibliometric Analysis of Sports Physiology Research
The Scientific Atlas of Performance: A Bibliometric Analysis of Sports Physiology Research

Summary/Abstract: In this study, the bibliometric characteristics of research on sports physiology were analyzed via the Biblioshiny interface within the R programming language. In this context, the aim was to reveal the overall structure of the field of sports physiology and its development throughout its historical progression. General trends and developments regarding sports physiology research throughout its historical progression were identified through publications in the Web of Science database; subsequently, the findings were visualized and interpreted via bibliometric analysis. The scope of the research involved the historical origins of sports physiology studies, author contributions, document counts, and the most frequently encountered keywords related to the topic. Analysis results detected a total of 963 studies on sports physiology meeting the relevant criteria between 1985 and 2025, produced by 4369 authors. Peter Peeling was identified as the most prolific author on the subject, with 9 publications. Bibliometric mapping revealed that the most frequently used terms were "physiology," "exercise," and "performance". In conclusion, the bibliometric analysis conducted within this investigation shows that sports physiology literature is mainly concentrated around the themes of "physiology," "exercise," and "performance," whereas the most cited works cover both public health and athletic performance domains. In the meantime, emerging niche themes such as "sedentary behavior," "grades," and "school" appear to signal the discipline's growing scope toward a holistic integration of performance, health, and educational perspectives.

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