A review of sports data analytics field: A bibliometric and network analysis of the articles published from 1997 to 2020

Data analysis in competitive sports has increased significantly in recent years, and a significant number of studies have been done during the last decades. In the sports Data analysis field, bibliometric analysis and maps have not yet been used to analyze the production and visualize evolution and trends. Therefore, the primary purpose of this article is to review data science analysis in sports activities with network embedding-based visualization on a large-scale dataset.805 articles were published between 1997 and 2020 and written by 3141 different authors from 1181 institutions, and 60 different countries were extracted from WOS by using R, Cite Space, and VOS viewer. Articles, journals, authors, countries, and universities that have played a significant role in developing this field are identified. Following that, meaningful knowledge of the communication networks among articles, authors, and keywords are illustrated by scientific paper mining. Moreover, articles have been divided into six groups based on the subject and methodology, which provide a comprehensive sight for researchers in this emerging field of sports.