Mapping in Loneliness Research in the Ten Psychology‐Related Web of Science Categories in the Social Science Citation Index

Abstract

The present study comprehensively maps loneliness research across ten psychology-related categories within the Social Science Citation Index of the Web of Science. This work evaluates publication performance by analyzing the average number of citations and authors per publication across different document types, categories, and journals. Six key publication and citation indicators were employed to assess the performance of countries and institutions, with the Y-index utilized for comparing individual author contributions. This bibliometric study identified the USA as the leading country in terms of publication volume across six types of publications, with the University of Michigan and the University of California, Los Angeles, emerging as the top contributing institutions. Additionally, the University of Chicago produced highly impactful articles. A. Rokach was recognized as the most prolific author. The research also highlighted the most frequently cited and impactful articles in the recent year of 2023. Primary research focuses and emerging trends in loneliness studies were also analyzed.