A Bibliometric Analysis of Thinking Skills Research: Trends and Patterns from 1980 to 2025

When defined as a skill, the acquisition and assessment of thinking abilities have been the subject of various studies. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of the growing literature on thinking skills using data from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection. A total of 967 publications from 1980 to 2025 were analyzed with R Studio-Biblioshiny, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Results show a publication peak in 2024 and a citation peak in 2003. Thinking Skills and Creativity emerged as the most influential journal, and Universitas Negeri Malang was among the most productive institutions. The United States, Indonesia, and Turkey were identified as leading contributors. Collaboration networks were observed among country clusters, with “artificial intelligence” highlighted as the top trending topic in 2025. Despite the growing interest in thinking skills, international collaboration remains limited, and research is increasingly shifting toward AI-based educational applications. Thus, future studies should investigate the role of artificial intelligence in fostering thinking skills.