Abstract
This study examines the tendencies of studies carried out using text mining methods under the title of “serious game”. A query was run for the “serious game” keyword in the Web of Science search engine to acquire the data. The study included publications that were scanned in the SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI and A&HCI indices between 2007-2017. Information could be acquired for a total of 1431 publications. Firstly, the obtained data were cleansed of erroneous and unnecessary information by way of a pre-process. According to the data set cleansed of errors, the total number of common citations was 12701, number of citations per publication was 8.88, whereas h-index was determined as 51. Analyses were carried out by examining all “serious games” publications on the basis of: year, author, journal/symposium name, keywords, research areas and common citation parameters. According to the results, there was a continuous increase over time in the number of publications and citations. Even though “serious games” is a topic that is frequently studied in the field of education technology studies in fields such as psychology, health care sciences, environmental sciences, ecology, public environmental occupational health, rehabilitation, business economics and psychiatry shows that “serious game” is also a popular topic for studies in different disciplines.
Highlights
The use of games in education dates back to old times
The results of the analysis were tabulated and transformed into graphs via 3 different methods. The first of these methods included acquiring the results from using the “analysis results” and “Create Citation Report” sections that appear on the screen following a query on the Web of Science (WOS) web page
Other findings were determined as a result of analyzing the “.txt” format data obtained from WOS database via VOSviewer and CiteSpace software
Summary
Digital games have gained an important place for themselves after electronic devices and the internet found an effective place in our lives. The fact that gamers (individuals who play games) spend more than 10 thousand hours playing games until the age of 21, which is equivalent to the time spent for education from primary school to secondary school, is an indication regarding the importance of digital games in the lives of individuals (McGonigal, 2011). McFarlane, Sparrowhawk and Heald (2002) put forth that playing games is related to decision making, design, strategy, cooperation and problem solving skills. It is thought that playing computer games may develop cognitive skills (Robertson & Howells, 2008) while providing opportunities for developing decision making, design, strategy, cooperation and problem solving skills (Ebner & Holzinger, 2007; McFarlane et al, 2002)
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