Mapping of Literature on Sport and Religion Research: Scientometric Review

Abstract

Throughout history, many sports evolved from rituals performed at religious celebrations. In this light, it is clear that religion and sport are symbolic systems with shared values and goals. This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the descriptive parameters of publications by visualizing citation patterns, extracting author keywords, and determining the impact and performance of research on religion and sports. An examination of 1,408 publications indexed in the Scopus and WoS databases was carried out from 1899 to 2022. The results show that after 2015, there was a considerable increase in sports and religion publications, with Scopus publications continuing to increase compared to WoS. The United States accounts for about 457 of the total global publications. Furthermore, with 19 documents, the title of the scientific source "Games and Economic Behavior" is the most active. In 170 documents, the keyword "physical activity" appears most frequently in this analysis. The trending topic with the largest absolute growth is "physical activity," while the trending topic with the largest relative growth is "osteoarthritis." Overall, the research in this field is evolving, with the development of new methodologies and channels for communicating vital lessons about values, culturally appropriate behaviour, and health scope. This study contributes to developing new concepts in the multidisciplinary study of the relationship between sport and religion. The significance of religious values in physical activity and in injuries suffered by athletes, as well as in the psychological development of athletes, is one area that can be studied in more depth.