Top 100 Cited Publications in Physics Education in The last Thirty Years: A Bibliometric Analysis

The present study\u27s focus is to analyze the top 100 cited papers (classic papers) in the field of physics education in the last thirty years. The study is aimed to provide insight into the citation pattern, authorship pattern, year, journals, countries of these classic papers with the help of bibliometric analysis. The data for the study was extracted from the Scopus database. The study indicated that among these top 100 papers maximum were in the form of research articles. The majority of these top-cited papers were published during the five years from 2012 to 2016. The average citation per paper was calculated to be 34 citations per paper. American Journal of Physics, Science and Education, and Physical Review Physics Education Research are the leading publication sources. Meanwhile, Springer Nature and the American Physical Society dominated publishing the most impactful research in physics education. Kuhn is recognized as the most productive author. Whereas McDermott received the greatest number of citations. The institutions whose authors have contributed the most included the University of Washington and California State University. The USA has predominance over the production of highly cited papers followed by Germany and Spain. Maximum works cited in these top 100 papers have been published within the 50 years from 1971 to 2020. The research areas in these papers are mainly emphasized on physics education, physics, students, computer-aided instruction, and medical education