Mapping education research in post-Soviet countries: A bibliometric analysis

Abstract This study aims to uncover the development and structure of post-Soviet education research since the dissolution of the USSR to date using a descriptive bibliometric approach and metadata extracted from 6754 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection database for the period 1992–2020. The findings suggest that education research in post-Soviet countries has increased in the last 15 years, but its contribution to international literature remains marginal. There is also a great disparity in the production of education research among post-Soviet countries, with Russia and Ukraine leading the generation of research on education in this region. Estonia appears as the most influential country in terms of citations, and Central Asian countries, excluding Kazakhstan, contribute the least. Research collaboration has increased significantly during the post-independence period but continues to be primarily within national borders or between neighboring countries. Post-Soviet education research covers a variety of subfields and topics that have evolved over the years. These topics align with those that interest researchers in other global regions, demonstrating the potential of post-Soviet scholars to contribute to the international research literature. The findings are discussed, and the implications for the future development of post-Soviet education research are highlighted.