Caring Behaviours in Nursing: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends and Knowledge Structure
İlknur Özkan, Seçil TaylanABSTRACT
Background
Caring behaviours constitute one of the most visible ways in which “caring” is translated into everyday nursing practice, yet the field has become increasingly heterogeneous across settings, outcomes, and conceptual traditions. A field‐level map is therefore needed to clarify how the literature has evolved and where it is currently concentrating.
Objective
This study aimed to bibliometrically map the literature on caring behaviours in nursing, focusing on global research trends, thematic development, collaboration networks, citation performance, and the field's intellectual structure.
Methods
A bibliometric analysis was conducted on publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection between 1987 and 2025, following the SALSA framework. Analyses included performance indicators (publication growth; most productive journals and countries), Author Keyword‐based frequency, trend‐topic, co‐occurrence, and thematic analyses following synonym merging and spelling harmonization, co‐authorship network analysis (collaboration patterns), citation analyses, and co‐citation mapping to examine the field's intellectual structure.
Results
A total of 351 documents from 158 sources (1987–2025) were included. The literature demonstrated steady growth, accelerating after 2016. Core source outlets included BMC Nursing , Journal of Nursing Administration , and Perspectives in Psychiatric Care . The USA, Iran, China, and Turkey were among the most productive countries, while international co‐authorship remained limited (14.25%). Thematic signals suggested a shift from earlier emphases on patient satisfaction toward a more recent focus on nursing education, empathy, emotional intelligence, and, most recently, compassion fatigue. The thematic map positioned caring behaviours within the basic‐themes quadrant, whereas work environment and related humanistic‐care concepts showed greater thematic development. Foundational influences remained anchored in Watson and Swanson, and measurement‐oriented works (notably Wu and Wolf) functioned as key intellectual bridges.
Conclusions
Caring behaviours research appears to be a maturing but still expanding field with strong theoretical and measurement “anchors,” yet comparatively constrained cross‐national collaboration. Future work may benefit from more internationally coordinated programmes and greater attention to cross‐cultural validation of measurement tools and to the emotional, organizational, and digitally mediated contexts in which caring behaviours are enacted.