Citation Index and Scientific Production on the Neuroscience of Music: A Bibliometric Study

Abstract

Recent decades have seen a significant increase in the number of scientific investigations and publica- tions within the field of the Neuroscience of Music that explore the relationship between music and the brain. This article sets out to examine the scientific activities within this discipline by employing the methods provided by scientometrics. By means of an investigation of the citation index and scientific production rate of articles related to the Neuroscience of Music, the objective of the present work is to ultimately determine how the field has evolved and how this work has been received within the international scientific community. The Web of Science database was the chosen tool for this investi- gation. The analysis considers the number of international publications in the field and the developing impact of texts on Music Neuroscience, as well as that of journals, organizations, and countries highlighted in the field. A bibliometric analysis demonstrates the exponential growth curve both in the number of publications and the number of citations received which, in comparison with the adjacent fields (the fields of Music and of Neuroscience), reflects the Neuroscience of Music as a developing area, a new field of study quite separate from Music or Neuroscience in general.