Global Research Trends in Sports Law: A Bibliometric Analysis of Athlete Rights and Sports Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68050/JAMS.2026.352Keywords:
Sports law, Athlete rights, Sports governance, Bibliometric analysis, Research trends.Abstract
This study examines global research trends in sports law with a particular focus on athlete rights and sports governance using a bibliometric approach. A total of 401 peer-reviewed articles published between 2001 to 2025 were retrieved from the Scopus database and analysed using the biblioshiny interface of the bibliometric package. The findings indicate a significant rise in the number of publications especially after 2015, and the growing scholarly interest in governance, regulation and athlete welfare in sports. Citation analysis reveals a different research impact, with the earlier studies cited more due to the longer exposure. The keyword co-occurrence analysis reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field, highlighting core themes such as sports law, governance, regulation, doping and human rights. The thematic map also shows governance and athlete-related issues as well developed and central research areas, while emerging themes are centred on inclusivity, ethics and changing regulatory challenges. The results also reveal that the research is focused on particular journals and the contribution is primarily from developed countries. The current study provides an in-depth view of the intellectual landscape of sports law and highlights the need for future research on policy implementation, inclusivity and technological progress in governance systems.
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Articles published in the Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Studies (JAMS) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), unless otherwise stated. Authors retain copyright of their work and grant JAMS the right of first publication.
