A bibliometric and thematic analysis of successful educational leadership research, 1980–2025

This study combined bibliometric techniques and thematic analysis to calculate the meta-data of successful educational leadership documents published between 1980 and 2025. The present study involved 409 documents. Bibliometric methods allowed for delineating the descriptive trends, uncovering the underlying intellectual structure, identifying impactful themes and suggesting new research directions in successful educational leadership. Thematic analysis enabled revealing the thematic evolution of themes across three periods of its development. The combination of bibliometric techniques and a thematic analysis provided broader overviews and deeper insights into the historical, current and future development of successful educational leadership research.