Themes and trends in marathon performance research: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis from 2009 to 2023

• DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1388565
• Publication Date: 2024-05-10T07:05:37Z
• Authors: Liping Yan; Ziyan Chen; Xue Zhang; Qi Han; Jingyi Zhu; Qirong Wang; Zhiguang Zhao
• Keywords: Elite; Web of science; Citation analysis

Background: When marathon runners break the 2-h barrier at finishing line, it attracts global attention. This study is aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of publications in field running, analyze relevant research contributors, and visualize historical trends performance over past 15 years. Methods: On 8 December 2023, we extracted high-quality publication data from Web Science Core Collection spanning 1 January 2009 30 November 2023. We conducted history visualization using R language packages biblioshiny, VOSviewer, CiteSpace. Results: A total 1,057 studies were published by 3,947 authors 1,566 institutions across 63 countries/regions. USA has highest citation volume, while, University Zurich being most prolific institution. Keywords revealed several hotspots 3 years: (1) physiology elite runners, (2) training intensity pacing strategies, (3) nutritional strategies for (4) age sex differences performance, (5) recovery inflammatory response muscle damage. Conclusion: presents first comprehensive It unveils key contributors research, visually represents developments field, highlights recent topical frontiers. The findings this will guide future identifying potential