Mapping the landscape of emotional intelligence research: a bibliometric analysis of trends, patterns, and future directions

Abstract Emotional intelligence is widely used to refer to the capacity to perceive, assess, and manage one’s and others’ emotions to attain personal and collective goals. This study aims to identify current and emerging research trends, evolution, patterns, and provide a comprehensive mapping of the knowledge structure in emotional intelligence research over the past 25 years. This study examines 2,487 papers indexed in the Scopus database, utilizing bibliometric performance analysis and scientific mapping approaches. The study employs bibliometric tools such as Biblioshiny (Bibliometrix R package), VOSviewer, and CiteSpace, utilizing analyses including co-citation, co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, keyword co-occurrence, burst detection, and timeline view to identify the most influential publications, authors, institutions, journals, and countries. The findings indicate the progression of topic areas, emphasizing the broadening of emotional intelligence research from fundamental psychological and educational frameworks to practical fields including stress management, leadership, workplace well-being, cultural intelligence, and the incorporation of emerging technology. In contrast to previous bibliometric research that focused on emotional intelligence within particular disciplines, databases, or restricted time periods, this study employs a comprehensive analytical method by utilizing multiple bibliometric tools over a 25-year Scopus dataset. The study finishes by delineating the most significant research concerns and pinpointing nascent possibilities for future inquiry, thus offering researchers a thorough scientific framework of EI research and direction for subsequent investigations.