Innovation in Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This article aimed to map the historical development of scientific production on innovation in Physical Education, physical activity, and sport. A structured literature review using formal bibliometric analysis methods was carried out in November 2019. The search and selection process of articles was carried out in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, using the equation ("physical education" OR "physical activity " OR sports) AND (innovat*)). The final selection included 481 articles, the first publication being found in 1968, with increasing investigation from 2010, and the journal Agro Food Industry Hi Tech was the magazine with the highest number of publications. The countries that most published the theme were China, the United States and Australia. In addition, the most frequent keywords identified were “Sport”, “Management”, “Perfomance”, “Determinants” and “Innovation”, and the authors who published the most had institutional links with the Universities of Australia, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In conclusion, although few studies have been found on the subject investigated in relation to the educational axis, there is a growing advance in relation to production on technologies that aim to improve the quality of life and control parameters that help sports performance.