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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1519509

Studying Engagement in Educational Settings: A Mapping Review on High-Impact Academic Engagement Research

Provisionally accepted
Paola Loyola-Carrillo Paola Loyola-Carrillo 1Alejandro Vega-Muñoz Alejandro Vega-Muñoz 2,3*Guido Salazar-Sepúlveda Guido Salazar-Sepúlveda 4,5Miseldra Gil Miseldra Gil 6José Carmelo Adsuar José Carmelo Adsuar 7,8
  • 1 Departamento de Matemáticas y Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile
  • 2 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad Central de Chile, Santiago, Chile
  • 3 Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Arturo Prat University, Iquique, Chile
  • 4 Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Concepción, VIII Biobío Region, Chile
  • 5 Facultad de Ingeniería y Negocios, Universidad de Las Américas, Concepción, VIII Biobío Region, Chile
  • 6 Public Policy Observatory, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region (RM), Chile
  • 7 Faculty of Sports Sciences, University of Extremadura, Cáceres, Spain
  • 8 Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Academic engagement provides opportunities and resources for students to engage in socio-educational interactions and learning. Our study provides an overview of high-impact research in academic engagement and the potential causes of its high valuation in the scientific community. Methods: We conducted a mapping review using bibliometric analysis of 1607 articles indexed in Web of Science, processed mainly by VOSviewer software. Results: The publication of selected articles grew exponentially year by year, presenting concentration levels of 1% in authorship, 49% in a single country, and 5% in journals, identified as outstanding Keywords plus® central aspects of academic engagement (classroom-social environment and school engagement), in addition, 6% were in highly cited articles. Conclusion: These highly cited articles (6%) are associated with authors with high levels of publication. The most cited current topics relate to the motivation and emotional aspects of academic engagement.

    Keywords: engagement, educational research, Behavioral studies, Prolific author, h-index

    Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 15 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Loyola-Carrillo, Vega-Muñoz, Salazar-Sepúlveda, Gil and Adsuar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alejandro Vega-Muñoz, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad Central de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.