A Bibliometric Review on Dual Careers and Elite Athletes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the development, conceptual structure, publication trends, and influential authors, institutions, countries, and sources in the scientific literature on dual careers and elite athletes through bibliometric analysis. The study analyzed 734 documents retrieved from the Scopus database covering the period between 2016 and 2025. The data were evaluated using the Bibliometrix R package and the Biblioshiny interface in terms of annual scientific production, citation performance, sources, authors, institutions, countries, keywords, thematic maps, thematic evolution, co-word networks, co-citation networks, and collaboration networks. The findings revealed that the field has shown a rapid growth trend in recent years, with the annual number of publications increasing from 10 in 2016 to 182 in 2025. The literature gained particular momentum after 2020, with an annual growth rate of 38.04%, indicating that the field represents a dynamic research domain that has not yet reached saturation. The most productive sources were identified as Frontiers in Psychology, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, while the most influential authors were concentrated around Ryba, Stambulova, Wylleman, Henriksen, and Torregrossa. Country-level analyses showed that scientific production was mainly concentrated in the United Kingdom, Spain, China, Australia, Germany, and the United States, and that international collaboration networks were structured around Europe, North America, Australia, and China. Conceptual structure analyses demonstrated that the literature was shaped around the concepts of dual career, student-athletes, education, elite athletes, mental health, well-being, career transition, and athletic identity. The thematic evolution findings indicated that the research focus has expanded from adolescent athletes toward adult athletes, mental health, career transitions, and career management. In conclusion, the literature on dual careers and elite athletes can be considered an interdisciplinary and rapidly expanding research field that is increasingly deepening around psychosocial health, education-sport balance, and career transitions.