Bibliometric analysis of physical education research in China from 2014 to 2024

This study focuses on a corpus of 1,585 journal papers related to physical education from the CNKI database, uses CiteSpace software to perform an in-depth analysis of data associated with physical education research. By constructing a knowledge graph, the study systematically categorizes information on the volume of published papers of physical education research in China, their provincial distribution, and the main journals that publish such studies, presenting a comprehensive overview of the prolific institutions, authors, and collaborations. This approach provides substantial data support for gaining a deeper understanding of the current state of physical education research in China. The findings reveal that the annual number of published journal papers in this field has generally maintained a stable upward trend. The provincial distribution of contributing institutions is dominated by regions such as Jiangsu and Hunan, with the main journals that carry these papers also concentrated in these regions. The most prolific institutions and authors are mainly composed of sports universities and their faculty members.