Čolakovac, I. et. al.: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS                             Vol. 16, Issue 1: 105-121 
Science of Gymnastics Journal                                105                           Science of Gymnastics Journal 
 
 
ANALYSIS OF THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE ON 
ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS IN SCOPUS DATABASE  
 
Ivan Čolakovac, Iva Barković, Lucija Milčić and Marijo Možnik 
 
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Kinesiology, Croatia 
 
 
Original article                                                                         DOI: 10.52165/sgj.16.1.105-121 
Abstract 
The purpose of this article is to examine the current state of scientific production, collaboration, 
and the effects of research publications on artistic gymnastics, as well as the most active 
researchers pursuing this area of study. Documents acquired from the Scopus database served 
as the basis for our investigation. MS Excel as well as VOS viewer were used to carry out the 
bibliometric analysis and network design. As a result, 430 original articles and scientific 
reviews in 22 Scopus subject areas were found in 167 journals. Most articles were published in 
Science of Gymnastics Journal (76). These articles are also most cited (294). There are 28 
authors with five to fifteen articles whose citation form most of the citation network. Most of 
the artistic gymnastics research is published in journals that cover subjects such as medicine, 
health professions, and social science, with the first receiving the most citations.  
 
Keywords: artistic gymnastics, bibliometrics, citation network, scientific literature  
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
Artistic gymnastics stands as a widely 
embraced competitive sport, encompassing 
both male and female participants on the 
Olympic stage. This sport comprises four 
events for women (vault, uneven bars, 
balance beam, floor) and six events for men 
(floor, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel 
bars, floor). In accordance with the findings 
of Arkhaev & Suchlin (2004), artistic 
gymnastics involves a diverse range of 
routines executed on equipment with 
varying motor skill requirements. The 
significance of artistic gymnastics lies in its 
capacity to foster physical well-being, 
mental resilience, aesthetic expression, 
teamwork, and cultural sensitivity. It plays 
a pivotal role in holistic development, 
exerting enduring positive impacts on 
individuals and society at large. The 
International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) 
serves as the global governing body for 
artistic gymnastics and related disciplines. 
The application of scientific research 
holds the potential to enhance training 
methodologies, elevate performance 
standards, and establish a safer milieu for 
gymnasts to excel. In essence, scientific 
inquiry within gymnastics contributes to the 
evolution and advancement of the sport, 
simultaneously aiding athletes in unlocking 
their utmost capabilities while ensuring 
their safety and overall welfare. In our 
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research, the bibliometric method will be 
used to better understand the current state of 
research in artistic gymnastics. 
Bibliometrics is the mathematical and 
statistical study of scientific literature 
(Pritchard, 1969). It identifies papers that 
are focused on a certain subject and reveal 
the social and logical connections between 
the key players (authors/scientists) in each 
scientific field. The basis for bibliometric 
research are the so-called primary sources 
of scientific information. These are 
publications that most often include articles 
and other papers published in academic 
journals, monographs/books, and papers 
published in academic journals and book 
proceedings (Jokić et al., 2012). 
 As far as we know an attempt to 
globally evaluate the current state of artistic 
gymnastics scientific research has not been 
published in a scientific journal to date. The 
only comparable study that we could find 
was research of the academic production on 
men’s artistic gymnastics conducted by 
Pauline Iglesias Vargas and André Mendes 
Capraro (2020). The goal of their study was 
to outline the scholarly output of 
publications related to men's artistic 
gymnastics that were indexed in the Scopus 
and Web of Science databases. Authors 
conducted a non-specific date-range search 
on both platforms using the terms “men's 
artistic gymnastics” and “male artistic 
gymnastics” with the objective to highlight 
a panorama of the distinct academic 
production on men's artistic gymnastics 
through the application of the criteria.  
Several bibliometric studies focusing 
on various sports have been published in the 
field of sport science. A bibliometric 
analysis of sports economics research 
between 1956 and 2009 revealed an 
increase in the quantity of published articles 
and journals, as well as the productivity of 
this field of study (Santos & García, 2011). 
The research on bibliometric characteristics 
of articles can be found in the research by 
Peset et al. (2013) whose goal was to detect 
the status of the scientific production, 
collaboration, as well as impact of scientific 
papers on judo. Research by Prieto et al. 
(2015) provides a bibliometric review of the 
scientific production in handball. The same 
year Pérez-Gutiérrez et al. (2015) 
performed a bibliometric analysis of 
taekwondo articles indexed in the Web of 
Science between 1989 and 2013. They 
concluded that there weren't enough 
academics studying this martial art, despite 
the fact that taekwondo had seen a 
significant surge in scientific research. Ho 
& Ho in 2015 conducted a bibliometric 
analysis of scientific production in the field 
of dance by analysing papers published in 
journals indexed in Web of Science 
database from 1994 to 2013. In 2019, Wang 
and Ho conducted an analysis of dance 
performance reviews from the years 1992 to 
2016. The analysis focused on various 
aspects, including languages, publication 
outputs, authors, and journals of 
publication. Another bibliometric analysis 
was completed between 1968 and 2018 
(Huertas González-Serrano et al., 2020) 
with the goal of providing an examination 
of sport entrepreneurship in the Web of 
Science Core Collection. The “sport 
sciences” literature's bibliometric analysis 
of all articles pertaining to summer and 
winter Olympic sports offers useful and 
practical information for researchers, 
practitioners, and funding stakeholders to 
further the Olympic-based research agenda 
in the rapidly expanding interdisciplinary 
subject of sport sciences (Millet et al., 
2021). Özkadı et al. (2022) gave a summary 
of 2392 publications published between 
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Science of Gymnastics Journal                                107                           Science of Gymnastics Journal 
 
1980 and 2021 thorough bibliometric 
analysis on swimming. 
The aim of our study is to find out the 
current state of scientific production, 
collaboration, and most active researchers 
in artistic gymnastics. The primary 
achievement of this study is pinpointing 
significant research topics that enhance 
comprehension of the publishing patterns 
within artistic gymnastics. Utilization of 
bibliometric analysis offers a thorough 
outline of the field's progress, by 
concentrating on noteworthy publications, 
journals, authors, and connections. This 
serves as a valuable step towards offering 
essential background for upcoming research 
and researchers. 
 
METHODS  
 
We chose Scopus (Elsevier) as the data 
source because it took into account the 
caliber of the literature as well as the 
requirement for the right reference format. 
Since 2004, prestigious academic, 
commercial, and governmental 
organizations have chosen the Scopus 
database. The database combines the 
exceptional quality and coverage of Scopus 
data with cutting-edge analytics and 
technology. We employed the Scopus 
database to ensure the study's thoroughness 
due to its scope: it covers more than 23,452 
top-notch peer-reviewed journals. 
The approach to the search was as 
follows: the term “artistic gymnastics” was 
searched within the Article title, Abstract, 
Keywords (Figure 1). The focus of the study 
were the years 1975 to 2022. The earliest 
entry in the database dates to 1975. To 
ensure the accuracy of the analysis, the 
current year, 2023, has been omitted from 
consideration. The only acceptable 
publication types were (original) articles 
and reviews. A total of 430 articles were 
under investigation. 
 
 
Figure 1. Scopus database selection criteria. 
 
 
 
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All results were downloaded with the 
record content of “Citation information”, 
“Bibliographical information” and 
“Abstract & keywords”, and exported in 
RIS format for further processing using 
Scopus's “Export Document Settings” 
option. A Microsoft Excel file was created 
and stored with a summary of the 
bibliographic data, which included the 
annual number of publications and 
citations, nations, institutions, authors, 
journals, funding agencies, research topics, 
keywords, and references.  
The 2021 Scientific Journal Rankings 
served as the foundation for the SJR. Using 
VOSviewer 1.6.18, both qualitative and 
quantitative assessments were carried out. It 
was used in the present study to illustrate 
the co-authorship analysis of the authors 
and the co-occurrence analysis of the 
keywords. Graphs and descriptive statistical 
analyses were conducted using Microsoft 
Excel 2022.  
The bibliometric analysis considered 
the following factors: document types and 
languages, the annual trend of articles 
published, the average number of authors 
per article, research fields and topics, trends 
of publications in the most active research 
fields, top journals, author productivity, and 
country distribution of publications. 
 
RESULTS 
 
Figure 2 shows the analysis of 
document type. Reviews (N=23; 5.35%) 
were the second-most common form of 
publication after (original) articles 
(N=407), which accounted for 94.65% of 
the analyzed references.  
Examining the language of publication 
(Figure 3), 84.88% of the 430 studied 
articles were written in English (N=365), 
significantly more than in any other 
publication language. Other languages 
included Portuguese (N=24 articles; 5.58% 
out of the total), Russian (N=19; 4.42%), 
Spanish (N=15; 3.49%), German (N=8; 
1.86%), French (N=7; 1.63%), Slovenian 
(N=7; 1.63%), Croatian (N=4; 0.93%), 
Italian (N=3; 0.70%), Japanese (N=2; 
0.47%), Chinese (N=1; 0.23%), Korean 
(N=1; 0.23%), Polish (N=1; 0.23%), and 
Turkish (N=1; 0.23%). 
 
 
 
Figure 2. Total number of publications by document type 
Article Review
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Figure 3. Total number of articles published by language. 
 
Figure 4 displays the annual trend of 
articles that have been published. Studies on 
the vertebral column in young female 
gymnasts (Wirbelsaulenuntersuchungen bei 
Jugendlichen Kunstturnerinnen) was the 
first publication in artistic gymnastics 
research to be published (Meyer, 1975). 
From this year to 2010, the number of 
published articles remained in very low 
figures, with no more than 8 articles per 
year, and for several years there was only 
one published article per year. Since 2011, 
there has been a steady rise in the number of 
articles, with some years (2014 and 2015) 
still seeing a fall in production. 
Nevertheless, there has been a definite 
upward trend, with the number of articles 
rising from 18 in 2012 to 41 in 2022. This 
pattern of publishing, particularly since 
2011, when the number of published articles 
nearly tripled, demonstrates a significant 
advancement in artistic gymnastics 
research. 
 
Figure 4. Number of published articles per year during 1975-2022. 
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
English
Portugese
Russian
Spanish
German
French
Slovenian
Croatian
Italian
Japanese
Chinese
Korean
Polish
Turkish
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
1
9
7
5
1
9
7
6
1
9
7
8
1
9
8
2
1
9
6
8
1
9
8
9
1
9
9
1
1
9
9
2
1
9
9
4
1
9
9
6
1
9
9
7
1
9
9
8
1
9
9
9
2
0
0
0
2
0
0
1
2
0
0
2
2
0
0
3
2
0
0
4
2
0
0
5
2
0
0
6
2
0
0
7
2
0
0
8
2
0
0
9
2
0
1
0
2
0
1
1
2
0
1
2
2
0
1
3
2
0
1
4
2
0
1
5
2
0
1
6
2
0
1
7
2
0
1
8
2
0
1
9
2
0
2
0
2
0
2
1
2
0
2
2
Čolakovac, I. et. al.: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS                             Vol. 16, Issue 1: 105-121 
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Figure 5. Average number of authors per article during 1975-2022. 
 
Figure 5 illustrated the average number 
of authors per article. From 0.47 authors per 
article in the years 1975–1998 to 2.30 
authors per article in the years 2010–2022, 
there was a significant rise in the average 
number of authors who contributed to 
articles. The linear trend line's R-squared 
value was 0.9583. The years with no articles 
published had a substantial impact on this 
number. Whatever the case, this 
demonstrates a significant level of 
cooperation in artistic gymnastics studies 
over time, particularly in recent years. 
Table 1 shows the distribution of 
articles by area of study. Medicine emerged 
as the most productive, with the highest 
number of published articles (N=292, 
67.91%), followed by health professions 
(N=250, 58.14%), social sciences (N=152, 
44.71%), biochemistry, genetics, molecular 
biology (N=36, 8.37%), and engineering 
(N=24, 7.06%). Regarding article citations, 
medicine accumulated most citations 
(N=3533), followed by health professions 
(N=2345), social sciences (N=790), 
biochemistry, genetics and molecular 
biology (N=503), and engineering (N=148).  
Regarding the 10 keywords that were 
most often used in the articles, (artistic) 
gymnastics appeared 296 times, followed 
by human(s), physical education, female, 
adolescent, male, adult, sport, athlete, and 
biomechanics. 
An article’s title, abstract, and author-
supplied keyword list are used to extract 
keywords from the text. The number of 
publications in which two keywords appear 
together in the title, abstract, or keyword list 
is known as the co-occurrence of the 
keywords. 
Figure 6 shows the co-occurrence of 
keywords. According to outputs produced 
by the VOSviewer based on the Scopus 
data, the analysis of co-occurrence of all 
keywords (in title, abstract, or keyword list) 
returned 2016 results. 176 were selected 
based on the threshold of 5 co-occurrences. 
It was not surprising to find that 
“gymnastics” had the highest total link 
strength of any term. The proximity of 
keywords revealed a relationship between 
them; the further away from "gymnastics" 
they were, the further away the relationship 
or the less research was conducted on them. 
Gymnastics, bone strength, ankle injury, 
and shoulder joint, for instance, received 
less research. 
y = 59.5x - 14.333
R² = 0.9583
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
1975-1998 1999-2010 2010-2022
Number of articles Number of authors Linearna (Number of authors)
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Table 1 Total number of published articles by research areas. 
Subject area Number of 
articles 
Citations 
Medicine 292 3533 
Health Professions  250 2345 
Social Sciences  152 790 
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular 
Biology  
36 503 
Engineering 24 148 
Psychology 19 296 
Arts and Humanities  13 107 
Business, Management and Accounting 9 61 
Computer Science  9 20 
Material Science  8 18 
Environmental Science  7 19 
Multidisciplinary  7 35 
Chemical Engineering  6 18 
Agricultural and Biological Sciences  5 18 
Mathematics  5 17 
Nursing  4 72 
Physics and Astronomy  4 6 
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics  2 36 
Chemistry  1 36 
Decision Sciences  1 15 
Economics, Econometrics and Finance  1 3 
Neuroscience  1 7 
 
 
Figure 6. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords. 
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Figure 7 demonstrates that the subjects 
of recent studies on artistic gymnastics have 
included adolescents, men, adults, and 
women. We analysed keyword co-
occurrence density visualization across all 
430 publications in the Scopus database, 
with at least 5 occurrences in the title, 
abstract, and keyword list. The number of 
publications where all keywords co-occur 
together is indicated by the co-occurrences 
of n keywords. The number of keywords 
and their density (background colour) is 
used to reflect the overall link strength. A 
greater text size denotes stronger total links, 
with yellow having the strongest total links 
followed by green and blue. The distances 
between each term show how closely linked 
these study areas are. 
 
 
Figure 7. Density visualization of keywords co-occurrence 
The annual evolution in the number of 
published articles since 1975 in the most 
active research areas is presented in Figure 
8. Articles published in medicine occupy 
the first position in every research period, 
and this trend is still present today. There 
has been a significant increase in social 
sciences, biochemistry and molecular 
biology and engineering:  from the initial 
zero articles in these areas to 147, 24 and 17 
respectively in period from 2010-2012. 
The 430 articles under analysis were 
published in 167 journals overall. Table 2 
lists the top 10 scientific journals for artistic 
gymnastics research along with statistics on 
the number of published articles, overall 
journal citations, average citations per 
article, and current journal rankings (SJR). 
Out of the 167 journals, the top 10 most 
active journals published a total of 175 
articles, accounting for 40.70% of all 
articles published. The Science of 
Gymnastics Journal (76 articles; 6.43% of 
all published articles) and the Journal of 
Physical Education and Sport (24 articles; 
5.58% of all published articles) stand out, 
followed by Teorya i Praktika Fizicheskoy 
Kultury with 14 articles (3.26%). The top 10 
journals received 1,276 citations, or 
29.98%, of the 4,256 citations that were 
received by all retrieved articles 
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Figure 8. Number of published articles per research area. 
 
The 430 articles under analysis were 
published in 167 journals overall. Table 2 
lists the top 10 scientific journals for artistic 
gymnastics research along with statistics on 
the number of published articles, overall 
journal citations, average citations per 
article, and current journal rankings (SJR). 
Out of the 167 journals, the top 10 most 
active journals published a total of 175 
articles, accounting for 40.70% of all 
articles published. The Science of 
Gymnastics Journal (76 articles; 6.43% of 
all published articles) and the Journal of 
Physical Education and Sport (24 articles; 
5.58% of all published articles) stand out, 
followed by Teorya i Praktika Fizicheskoy 
Kultury with 14 articles (3.26%). The top 10 
journals received 1,276 citations, or 
29.98%, of the 4,256 citations that were 
received by all retrieved articles.  
The fact that three of these journals—
Science of Gymnastics Journal, Journal of 
Sports Sciences, and Sports 
Biomechanics—account for 18.59% of all 
citations is also noteworthy. With only 7 
papers published (1.63% of the total 
publications), the Journal of Sports 
Medicine and Physical Fitness garnered 
177 citations (4.16% of the total citations), 
averaging 25.26 citations per article. This is 
primarily due to one article with 124 
citations, regarded as strong evidence of its 
contribution (The contribution of 
anthropometric characteristics to 
performance scores in elite female 
gymnasts; Claessens, 1999). Other featured 
articles which were cited more than 100 
times were: The prevalence of spondylolysis 
in the Spanish elite athlete (Tomása & 
Calderón, 2000); In pursuit of an identity: A 
qualitative exploration of retirement from 
women's artistic gymnastics (Lavalee & 
Robinson, 2007); and Gymnastics injuries 
(Caine & Nassar, 2005) with 189, 123 and 
121 citations respectively. 
 
 
 
 
 
0 50 100 150 200 250
Medicine
Health Professsions
Social Sciences
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular
Biology
Engineering
Year 2010-2022 Year 1999-2010 Year 1975-1998
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Table 2 Top ten most active journal. 
Journal title Articles Citations Average citation per 
article 
SJR 
Science of Gymnastics Journal 76 294 3,9 0.283 
Journal of Physical Education 
and Sport 
24 60 2,5 0.393 
Teorya i Praktika Fizicheskoy 
Kultury 
14 8 0,6 0.204 
Journal of Sports Sciences 12 248 20,7 1.162 
Sports Biomechanics 10 249 24,9 0.783 
Journal of Human Sport and 
Exercise 
9 37 4,1 0.589 
Journal of Human Kinetics 8 59 7,4 0.816 
Journal of Sports Medicine and 
Physical Fitness 
8 177 22,1 0.49 
Journal of Biomechanics 7 117 16,7 0.747 
Motriz Revista de Educacao 
Fisica 
7 27 3,9 0.217 
 
Table 3 The ten most productive authors. 
Author Country Number 
of 
Articles 
Leading 
Author 
Articles 
Collaborated 
Articles 
Citation 
Number 
Average 
per 
article 
Nunomura, M. Brazil 15 5 15 101 6,73 
Čuk, I. Ljubljana 14 5 14 174 12,43 
Kalinski, S. D. Croatia 10 5 10 58 5,80 
Barker-Ruchti, N. Sweden 10 4 1 229 22,90 
Atiković, A. Bosnia and 
Herzegovina 
9 5 8 39 4,33 
Hiley, M. J. United 
Kingdom 
9 8 9 237 26,33 
Irwin, G. United 
Kingdom 
9 3 9 125 13,89 
Hübner, K. Switzerland 8 0 8 31 3,88 
Schärer, C. Switzerland 8 8 8 31 3,88 
Yeadon, M. R. United 
Kingdom 
8 1 8 229 28,63 
 
In the observed period, articles 
produced by a sole author were in minority 
(39 articles; 9.07%). The high level of 
collaboration between scientists is reflected 
in multi-author articles, with 4 authors as 
the most frequent (201, 46.74%). There are 
102 articles (23.72%) with two authors and 
88 with 3 authors (20.47%).  The 430 
articles that were retrieved were signed by a 
total of 155 different authors. Table 3 lists 
the top ten authors in artistic gymnastics 
research in leading author publications and 
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collaborative publications, along with their 
home nations. These top-10 most 
productive authors contributed to 104 
articles (24.19% of the total number of 
publications), making up 6.45% of all 
authors. This is consistent with findings in 
the majority of academic domains, where a 
small number of productive authors 
produce a sizable portion of publications. 
The fact that three of the top 10 writers were 
British highlights the significance of artistic 
gymnastics research in this nation. 
A visual representation of research 
networks called co-authorship networks can 
show how collaborative a group of 
researchers are (e.g., grantees, international 
or industry collaborators, or faculty 
mentors). Vosviewer software was used to 
facilitate the analysis. 
A cluster is a group or agglomeration 
that maintains a certain link, and each hue 
on the map denotes a cluster. Each hue 
represents a team of scientists who 
collaborate and research in the same field in 
this fashion. The size of the circles and the 
characters in the authors' names show how 
much writing each author has produced. 
Larger circles denote higher productivity. 
The lines between the circles show the 
approximate co-authorship relationship, 
while the distance between them shows the 
relationships between the authors. Clusters 
near one another suggest closely connected 
fields (van Eck & Waltman, 2017). 
In 430 publications that were examined for 
co-authorship, 155 collaborative authors 
were identified. To enhance data 
visualization, authors who have co-
authored more than three articles were 
selected, resulting in a map featuring 70 
results with 12 significant relations. The 
map reveals the presence of four clusters or 
groups of authors maintaining co-
authorship relationships, distinguished by 
colors (Figure 9). Additionally, Čuk (Cuk) 
is notably interconnected with other authors 
across various clusters.  
Analyzed articles were published by 50 
different nations in total. Figure 10 lists ten 
nations with the highest levels of 
productivity. Brazil, the United States of 
America, and eight other European 
countries were in the top ten most 
productive nations. European nations 
contributed to 62.52% of the articles 
overall, showing just how important this 
continent is to artistic gymnastics study. 
 
 
Figure 9. Map of co-authorship 
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Figure 10. Top ten most productive countries. 
 
DISCUSSION 
 
While not as widespread as other 
sports, research on artistic gymnastics has 
expanded significantly in recent years. The 
goal of the current study was to conduct a 
bibliometric analysis of the body of 
research in artistic gymnastics. Publications 
from 1975 until 2022 were gathered from 
the Scopus databases. Original scientific 
articles were the most prevalent document 
type (N=407) and made up 94.65% of all 
publications. This demonstrates that 
researchers in the discipline of artistic 
gymnastics choose articles from scholarly 
journals as their primary medium for 
disseminating their most recent and 
significant results, which is consistent with 
most scientific research domains. 
Of the 430 articles included in the 
research, 365 (84.88%) were written in 
English. Similar results can be found in the 
research on handball scientific production 
(Prieto et al., 2015). This confirms that 
English is the most widely used academic 
language and that the majority of scientific 
publications indexed in global academic 
databases are written in English. The 
number of published articles from 1975, 
when the first scientific article on artistic 
gymnastics was published and indexed in 
Scopus, through 2010, stayed below 8 per 
year. Since 2010, the number of articles has 
gradually increased, particularly since 
2017, when the number of published 
articles nearly tripled to reach an annual 
average of 30 articles. This demonstrates 
how artistic gymnastics has advanced 
significantly in recent years. The same 
conclusion was made by Vargas & Capraro 
(2020), and the reason for that was found in 
the global increase in academic output in 
tandem with the growth of search platforms. 
With the evolution of collaborative 
research, there has been a consistent rise in 
the average author count per publication 
across all scientific fields since the 1980s 
(Hosseini et al., 2022). Within the examined 
dataset, a clear escalation in the authors per 
paper is evident, shifting from 0.47 authors 
to 2.30. According to the 2017 Taylor and 
Francis White paper, the rise in the number 
of authors could be attributed to the 
possibility that the nature of the research 
being carried out might require greater 
collaboration. The expansion of 
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Brazil
United Kingdom
United States
Italy
Slovenia
Russian Federation
Germany
Greece
Spain
Switzerland
Number of Articles
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interdisciplinary work, which gains 
advantages from diverse viewpoints, 
received notable emphasis. Additionally, 
emerging methodologies like participatory 
research are also exerting an impact. 
Knudson (2005) arrived at a similar finding 
through an analysis of applied 
biomechanics research. His conclusion 
aligns with the idea that there is an 
increasing inclination towards having a 
higher number of coauthors per paper. 
Moreover, there is an increase in the 
proportion of articles with six or more 
authors, while the percentage of articles 
authored by a single individual has been 
declining.  
The scientific field with most 
publications was medicine, followed by the 
health professions, social science, 
biochemistry, genetics and molecular 
biology, engineering, and psychology. It 
draws attention to the fact that three of the 
top 10 disciplines (health profession, 
biochemistry, genetics and molecular 
biology, psychology) are in some way 
related to the medical sciences. This shows 
that artistic gymnastics is a sport with a high 
physical and psychological component 
where studies about injuries, physical 
capabilities, physiological components, 
etc., are common.  
Various study areas in the field of 
medicine encompass topics such as eating 
disorders, vitamin D intake and bone 
density, sports injuries, strength, and motor 
skills, among others. The risk of spinal and 
other injuries is particularly high in artistic 
gymnastics due to its demanding nature, 
which increases with the level of 
performance. Research topics that are 
commonly explored include physical 
capabilities and conditions, physiological 
variable assessment, performance and 
success variables, male and female artistic 
gymnastics, and sport technique. The 
predominance of the biological domain 
over the social domain is elucidated by 
Vargas & Capraro (2020). They suggest that 
this is not unexpected as there are generally 
fewer researchers and consequently fewer 
publications in the social aspects of sports. 
The dominant trend in artistic 
gymnastics research publication are still 
articles published in the field of medicine, 
which has held the top spot every year 
throughout this period. In the same span of 
time, there was a considerable increase in 
biochemistry, genetics, and molecular 
biology, which emerged as the field with 
most articles published in 2003, 2005, and 
2008. The same applies to the research area 
of social sciences, which had three indexed 
articles and 147 total publications in 2011.  
VOSViewer's functionality for 
clustering keywords based on their co-
occurrence is utilized for the analysis of 
keywords. Both author keywords and index 
keywords contribute to constructing a 
comprehensive overview of the diverse 
areas of study within the field of artistic 
gymnastics. The size of each node 
corresponds to the frequency of a particular 
keyword's occurrence, while the 
connections between nodes indicate the 
instances of these keywords co-occurring. A 
higher frequency of co-occurrence leads to 
a closer proximity between the associated 
keywords. Among the keywords exhibiting 
high frequencies, terms like "adolescents," 
"man," "adults," "women," "biomechanics," 
"physiology," and "performance" stand out. 
These frequencies suggest an increasing 
focus on researching the biomechanical and 
physiological aspects of artistic gymnastics, 
gender disparities, and various dimensions 
of artistic gymnastics concerning young 
individuals and adolescents. The outcomes 
of the keyword analysis align with the 
Čolakovac, I. et. al.: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS                             Vol. 16, Issue 1: 105-121 
Science of Gymnastics Journal                                118                           Science of Gymnastics Journal 
 
prevailing trend of publications in the most 
active research domains, with medicine 
prominently holding the top position across 
different research periods. 
The top three journals with the highest 
research activity in artistic gymnastics were 
Science of Gymnastics Journal, Journal of 
Sports Sciences, and Sports Biomechanics. 
The predominance of Science of 
Gymnastics Journal can be attributed to its 
specialization as an international 
gymnastics journal. Additionally, its 
affiliation with the gymnastics department 
of the University of Ljubljana and 
sponsorship by the Fédération 
Internationale de Gymnastique contribute to 
its prominence in publishing articles related 
to gymnastics (Vargas & Capraro, 2020).  
The authorship pattern revealed that a 
small group of writers were responsible for 
a sizable portion of the publications. British 
authors made up three of the top ten most 
productive authors, demonstrating the 
significance of artistic gymnastics in this 
nation. In terms of region, European nations 
contributed to 22.09% of the articles. Aside 
from Brazil, the top 10 nations are almost 
predominantly European, demonstrating 
Europe's significant research presence in 
artistic gymnastics. This finding aligns with 
the results of the research conducted by 
Vargas & Capraro (2020), which also 
highlighted the predominance of the United 
Kingdom.  
The top four productive authors, each 
with over ten published scientific papers in 
the field of artistic gymnastics, are 
Nunomura, M. (15), Čuk, I. (14), Kalinski, 
S. D. (10), and Barker-Ruchti, N. (10). The 
most cited articles are authored by Ivan 
Čuk,  accumulating a total of 174 citations. 
All of these authors hold professorial 
positions at prestigious universities and 
specialize in artistic gymnastics. 
Specifically, Myrian Nunomura is a 
professor at the School of Physical 
Education and Sport, University of Sao 
Paulo; Ivan Čuk is a professor at the Faculty 
of Sport, University of Ljubljana; Sunčica 
Delaš Kalinski is a professor at the Faculty 
of Kinesiology, University of Split; and 
Natalie Barker-Ruchti is a senior lecturer at 
the School of Health Sciences at Örebro 
University. 
The co-authorship network offers 
insights into the structure of research within 
specific subjects, the progression of 
research networks over time, and the 
involvement of specific organizations or 
countries within these networks. Through 
co-authorship, we can observe the quantity 
of publications produced by authors and the 
connections between them. By employing 
co-authorship analysis, the prominent 
figure in the network was identified as Ivan 
Čuk. It's important to note that co-
authorship data presents just one potential 
measure of scientific collaboration. Not all 
collaborative endeavors culminate in 
published works, and not all joint papers 
necessarily denote a sharing of knowledge 
among the authors. Nevertheless, it is 
generally assumed that co-authorship 
predominantly signifies active cooperation 
among partners that extends beyond mere 
material or information exchange. 
When it comes to the overall scientific 
output concerning artistic gymnastics, 
Brazil stands out as the most productive 
nation. That's no surprise given that artistic 
gymnastics is very popular in Brazil, 
boasting a rich heritage and formidable 
global representation (Dindu, 2022). The 
administration of gymnastics in the country 
falls under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian 
Gymnastics Confederation (CBG), an 
affiliate of the International Gymnastics 
Federation (FIG). The nation has a track 
Čolakovac, I. et. al.: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS                             Vol. 16, Issue 1: 105-121 
Science of Gymnastics Journal                                119                           Science of Gymnastics Journal 
 
record of accomplishments in artistic 
gymnastics, especially within the women's 
category. Among the prominent Brazilian 
gymnasts are individuals like Daiane dos 
Santos (Dindu, 2022), who secured a bronze 
medal during the 2004 Olympics, and Jade 
Barbosa, recognized for her multiple 
victories in the Pan American Games and 
various other global tournaments. 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
After describing the scholarly output 
on artistic gymnastics in journals listed in 
the Scopus database we came to the 
following conclusions: 1) the earliest article 
on the topic dates back to 1975, with 2019 
being the year with the highest number of 
articles published; 2) English remains the 
dominant language in academic 
publications with 84.88% of the articles 
analyzed authored in English); 3) an 
increase in collaboration among authors 
was observed over time; 4) medical 
research comprises the majority of articles 
(67.91%) and also has the highest citation 
rate (82.64%); 5) four authors have 
authored more than 10 publications on this 
topic: one Brazilian (Nunomura, M.), one 
Slovenian (Čuk, I.), one Croatian (Kalinski, 
S. D.), and one Swedish (Barker-Ruchti, 
N.); 6) the Science of Gymnastics Journal  
leads in the number of articles on artistic 
gymnastics (17.67%), followed by the 
Journal of Physical Education and Sport 
(5.58%).  
The purpose of this article is to 
encourage researchers to delve into the 
intricacies of artistic gymnastics and 
advocate for increased funding to advance 
scientific knowledge in this field. The 
information provided here can serve as a 
guide for researchers in deciding which 
journals to subscribe to and where to submit 
their future articles. It can also aid new 
researchers in identifying key contributors 
and institutions in the realm of artistic 
gymnastics. 
Acknowledging the limitations of the 
methodological approach, particularly in 
the selection of search engines and 
keywords, this study sought to offer an 
overview of the diverse academic 
production in artistic gymnastics within the 
methodological constraints. It underscores 
the importance of authors being meticulous 
in crafting the titles, keywords, and 
abstracts of their articles, as relevant 
research on this topic may have been 
inadvertently excluded by the search 
criteria employed in this study. 
Additionally, the preference for English-
language journals is noted. 
As bibliometric analysis is contingent 
upon the selected bibliographic sources, the 
findings and interpretations presented in 
this study are focused solely on evaluating 
the state of artistic gymnastics research 
utilizing the chosen Scopus database. We 
believe this research effectively serves as a 
comprehensive portrayal of the current 
landscape of artistic gymnastics research, 
given its primary objective of conducting an 
exploratory bibliometric analysis. 
 
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Corresponding author: 
 
Lucija Milčić, 
University of Zagreb, Faculty of 
Kinesiology, 
Horvaćanski zavoj 15, 10000 Zagreb, 
Croatia 
Lucija.milcic@kif.hr 
+385981679752 
 
Article received: 6. 4. 2023 
Article accepted: 25. 9. 2023