Bibliometric Analysis of Neuro Linguistic Programming Publications Between 1983-2018

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a communication, personal development and psychotherapy approach. The aim of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of publications in NLP. For this purpose, this observational, descriptive and retrospective study of publications in NLP was designed between 1983-2018. Publications on NLP in this period that were written in English or Spanish were selected. Those that included other disciplines, had a different format to an article, and/or did not have full access to the text were excluded. The productivity results in NLP show an irregular but growing trend during 1983-2008 (mean of 3.2 publications/year in 1999-2008), rising to 7.2 publications/year in 2009-2013 and reaching 11.6 publications/year in 2014-2018. In the last quinquennium (2014-2018), practical studies in NLP increased compared to previous years and publications in the area of education/learning were the most frequent. The US was the country that most published in NLP in 1983-2013, but in 2014-2018 it was more distributed among different countries. This is, to our knowledge, the first bibliometric study in NLP internationally. In the last 10 years (2009-2018), a substantial increase in productivity in NLP has been observed.