Exploring Research Trends in Fantasy as a Psychological Construct: A Bibliometric Study Using the Scopus Database

The present study explores research trends in fantasy by conducting a bibliometric analysis of literature indexed in the Scopus database. The PRISMA framework was employed to identify and select articles from the Scopus database. A search of the Scopus database using the term “fantasy” resulted in 7,177 documents from which 502 articles were shortlisted based on inclusion–exclusion criteria and manual screening. The selected metadata were exported in CSV format and analyzed using the R package Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software for bibliometric analysis and visualization. The study identifies the most influential authors, articles, journals, countries, keywords, and trends in publication over the years. The most cited document was “Brexit Populism and Fantasies of Fulfilment” by Browning, C.S. (2023) with 88 citations, while Personality and Social Psychology emerged as the most influential source with 76 citations. Results show that although the number of publications fluctuated slightly, there has been an exponential overall growth. Research on fantasy as a faculty shows a positive research trend, which will turn it into an emerging research field.