A bibliometric study based on seafarers' psychological issues: hotspots research and future agenda

Abstract

This literature review delves into the psychological issues faced by seafarers to provide insights into the current state of research and identify emerging subject areas in this field. Using bibliometric analysis tools such as R-studio and VOS viewer, we examined 929 articles from Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases timespan 1995-2023. The analysis included co-occurrence, author citation, and country analysis criteria, as well as cluster analysis, funding agencies to investigate the content of previous research studies. Our finding keywords in seafarer-related research, reveal a key research hotspot. Notably, we identified mental health and autonomous ship as key areas for future research, highlighting relevant research gaps and suggesting avenues for future exploration. While this study is limited to English language datasets from Scopus and WOS, future research could broaden its scope by incorporating additional databases such as Google Scholar, Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI), and PubMed as well as investigating research in languages other than English to reduce bias.