Considering keywords: A secondary analysis of occupational science publications in English from January 2007 – June 2022

This secondary review seeks to provide the first comprehensive keyword analysis of occupational science literature, specifically those published in English from January 2007 to June 2022. Although an underexamined metric for surveying literature, keywords are valuable for evaluating the state of scholarship as they serve as indicators of a shared disciplinary lexicon and disciplinary trends. The research aims were to 1) characterize the keywords in occupational science publications by identifying the most frequent keywords and analyzing their distribution across research subjects; 2) describe yearly trends in keyword usage; and 3) compare keyword distribution and trends across categories used in articles from the Journal of Occupational Science (JOS) and other journals. Analyzing 634 total articles, 7 thematic categories (i.e., theory, research, population, health and well-being, occupation, socio-political, environment) were generated to describe 3,073 keywords across JOS and 54 other journals. The most frequent keyword regardless of journal was ‘occupational science’ (JOS: 6.7%, occupational therapy and related journals: 9%), with the category ‘occupation’ also being the most prevalent. With deviations present across the selected timeline, this trend was stable. Results from the review raised salient concerns around redundancy and inefficient search strategies impacting the potential reach of occupational science literature. Overall, insights highlight the need for both increased guidance and scrutiny around effective keyword selections at each stage of the submission process. These changes can improve dissemination outcomes such as interdisciplinarity connections, relevant literature, and disciplinary growth.