A bibliometric analysis of global research trends in sport educational policies using R biblioshiny, focusing on African research trends

This study rigorously evaluates the bibliometric properties of research on sports education policies at the global and African levels, using the Biblioshiny interface (R language). The analysis covers 1088 documents published between 1990 and 2025, retrieved from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, and distributed across 388 different sources. The results are unequivocal: scientific output is dominated by the United States and the United Kingdom, which also exhibit the highest levels of international collaboration, alongside Australia. In contrast, the African continent represents a significant blind spot, no meaningful collaborative dynamics are emerging there, and research on sports education policies is sorely lacking (only 23 documents). From an editorial perspective, the journal Sport, Education and Society stands out as the essential source in the field, with 136 publications. Thematically, the study reveals a recent and decisive shift: between 2021 and 2024, topics such as identity, dual careers, and the situation of student-athletes became priority research areas, signaling a shift towards more psychosocial and biographical concerns with more inclusion.