ArticlePloS one2026
From reductionism to complex systems: Paradigm shift and knowledge evolution in competitive sports research using BERTopic.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Abstract
background and purposeWith the exponential growth in the volume of competitive sports research, traditional bibliometric methods based on keyword co-occurrence struggle to accurately capture the field's deep semantic structure and evolutionary dynamics. This study aims to employ natural language processing (NLP) techniques to reconstruct the knowledge structure and evolutionary characteristics of competitive sports research from a micro-semantic perspective.
methodsUtilizing the BERTopic topic modeling algorithm combined with dynamic regression analysis, we performed unstructured text mining on 24,659 core abstracts published between 2010 and 2024. Data were retrieved from the Web of Science, PubMed, and Scopus databases.
resultsThe study reveals a distinct "monocentric, multi-dimensional" hierarchical structure in competitive sports research.Topic 0 ("Sports Injury and Load Management") represents the largest volume and exhibits continuous, significant growth ("Hot"). It constitutes the field's epistemological foundation, demonstrating robust vitality driven by technological iteration. Meanwhile, the explosive growth of Topic 1 ("Sports Mental Health") marks a profound paradigm shift from singular "physiological optimization" to "holistic psychophysical well-being."In contrast, Topic 4 ("Mega-event Management") shows statistically non-significant growth, indicating that this sub-field has reached a stage of theoretical saturation. Furthermore, the evolution of the discipline can be categorized into three stages: the Budding Period (2010-2014), the Rapid Development Period (2015-2019), and the Multi-dimensional Transition Period (2020-2024).
conclusionCompetitive sports science is currently in a critical transition period from reductionism to a complex systems perspective. Future research frontiers are likely to focus on the deep integration of biomedical technologies and humanistic psychology. This study provides a novel methodological perspective for understanding the evolutionary laws of the discipline.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.