Eye-Tracking Research: A Bibliometric Analysis Based on Scopus

Eye tracking is an interdisciplinary research method used in many fields, including engineering, architecture, health sciences, psychology, marketing, and human–computer interaction. Although it is often perceived as a modern research method, its origins can be traced back to the nineteenth century. This study aims to identify the developmental trends and thematic structure of eye-tracking research from its early history to the present. Bibliometric analysis was used to evaluate studies in the field of eye-tracking. A total of 45,230 publications identified in the Scopus database using eye-tracking search terms were analyzed. The most productive authors, institutions, countries, publication sources, keywords, and thematic trends were examined using Bibliometrix in the RStudio environment. The findings show substantial growth in eye-tracking research during 2020–2025, with 22,130 publications recorded during this period. The analysis also shows that the share of eye-tracking publications in total Scopus output increased from 0.0134% in 2000 to 0.0963% in 2025, while the search sensitivity analysis demonstrates that terminology choices substantially affect the size and composition of the retrieved corpus. Computer Science accounted for the largest share of publications. The United States had the highest number of publications. Based on Scopus affiliation records, the University of California system had the highest publication count among the institutional structures identified in the dataset, although this figure may reflect the combined representation of different campuses and affiliated units and should therefore not be interpreted as a direct comparison of individual campuses. In addition to fundamental concepts such as eye movements and visual attention, themes such as EEG, virtual reality, augmented reality, computer vision, machine learning, and deep learning have become more prominent in recent years. Overall, the findings reveal academic orientations and temporal trends in eye-tracking research. They also provide a framework for potential future research directions.