Mapping the evolution of neuroscience research: scientific collaboration, thematic structure, and emerging research frontiers

Southeast Asian Journal of Technology and Science August 30, 2026 Volume 7, Number 1 2 authors

Abstract

Neuroscience has matured into a large, multidisciplinary field whose rapid growth has fragmented it into many loosely connected subdomains, making its intellectual and social structure difficult to grasp through narrative review alone. This study maps the evolution of neuroscience research in terms of publication output, scientific collaboration, thematic structure, and emerging frontiers. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 2,710 English-language articles exported from Scopus (1973–2026; snapshot 29 August 2026). Performance analysis and science mapping were performed, and co-authorship, keyword co-occurrence, and citation networks were visualized in VOSviewer. Data were audited and conservatively cleaned; author keywords were normalized and a publisher subject-collection prefix was documented and neutralized. The corpus accumulated 140,375 citations (mean 51.8 per document) and showed non-linear growth: a high-impact wave in 2005–2009 and a second, larger expansion from 2022 onward. Collaboration was near-universal (91.7% multi-authored; mean 6.25 authors/document) yet the co-authorship network was highly fragmented into small, weakly connected communities. Keyword co-occurrence revealed a neuroscience-centred structure organized around neurogenesis/neural-stem-cell biology, systems and behavioural neuroscience, and a cell-biology/organoid axis; temporal mapping showed a shift from classical adult-neurogenesis anatomy toward organoid- and cell-biology-driven, methods-intensive research. Neuroscience remains anchored in a strong disciplinary core while expanding unevenly toward organoid technologies and, more peripherally, toward learning and educational neuroscience; chemistry education was not identified within the corpus on the indicators used, pointing to a possible under-explored interface rather than a demonstrated gap. Findings describe bibliometric patterns within this Scopus-defined corpus and are descriptive rather than confirmatory.

Authors

  1. Sofiyanita Sofiyanita

    Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau

  2. Zona Octaria

    Universitas Islam Negeri Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau, Pekanbaru

Keywords

Bibliometric analysisCo-authorshipNeuroscienceScience mappingKeyword co-occurrence

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