Global trends in the application of virtual reality for people with autism spectrum disorders: conceptual, intellectual and the social structure of scientific production

Research in recent years has shown an increase in scientific production on the application of virtual reality in people with autism spectrum disorder. However, there is no global picture about the research carried out in the field during the last years. Therefore, we propose to analyze conceptually, intellectually and socially the global trends in the use of virtual reality for learning by people with ASD through bibliometric techniques. A bibliometric analysis was carried out with a sample of 378 documents obtained from the main collection of the Web of Science during the period 1996–2020. Results show that Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders is the Journal around which the field of publications is organized. In addition, those authors who receive the most citations are not the most producers, but they do take central positions in collaborative networks. Therefore, it produces teams of more authors. Finally, the use of cheaper and more portable VR devices has led to the spread of this tool to various areas of people with ASD that had not been worked on before. These are closely related to factors that influence social interactions. These findings may help to suggest the use of other bibliometric indicators that would broaden the field of knowledge of the study and the creation of a new software to analyse in more detail the application of VR in people with autism spectrum disorders.