Visualizing Music Psychology: A bibliometric analysis of the literature from 1973 to 2017

Abstract

Music psychology has grown drastically since being established in the middle of the 19th century. However, until now, no large-scale computational bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature in music psychology has been carried out. This study aims to analyze all published literature from the journals Psychology of Music, Music Perception, and Musicae Scientiae. The retrieved literature comprised a total of 2,089 peer-reviewed articles, 2,632 authors, and 49 countries. Visualization and bibliometric techniques were used to investigate the growth of publications, citation analysis, author and country productivity, collaborations, and research trends. From 1973 to 2017, with a total growth rate of 11%, there is a clear increase in music psychology research (i.e., number of publications, authors, and collaborations), consistent with the general growth observed in science. The retrieved documents received a total of 33,771 citations (M = 16.17, SD = 26.93), with a median (Q1—Q3) of 7 (2—20). Different bibliometric indicators defined the most relevant authors, countries, and keywords as well as how they relate and collaborate with each other. Differences between the three journals are also discussed. This type of analysis, not without its limitations, can help understand music psychology and identify future directions within the field.