Mapping the Development of Biological Sciences and Philosophical Thought: A Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Trends
(1) Master of Science Program in Biology Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia
(2) Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia
(*) Corresponding Author
Abstract
This study aims to map the development of research at the intersection of biological sciences and philosophical thought, and to identify prevailing global trends within this interdisciplinary field. A bibliometric analysis approach was employed, utilizing data systematically retrieved from the Scopus database. A total of 95 English-language publications issued between 2021 and September 2025 were analyzed using VOSviewer to examine keyword co-occurrence patterns and visualize conceptual relationships among research topics. The findings reveal twelve distinct thematic clusters representing the intellectual structure of the field, encompassing themes such as evolution, philosophy of biology, ethics, biotechnology, and environmental issues. Overlay and density visualization analyses further indicate that topics pertaining to biotechnology, human enhancement, and ethical implications have emerged as prominent and rapidly developing research trends within the contemporary literature. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that the relationship between biological sciences and philosophical thought continues to evolve dynamically in parallel with ongoing scientific and technological advancements. This study further underscores the growing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between biological sciences and philosophy in addressing the conceptual, ethical, and societal challenges inherent in modern biological research, while simultaneously offering a strategic roadmap for prospective scholarly inquiry at this productive disciplinary interface.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). Bibliometrix: An R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. Journal of Informetrics, 11(4), 959–975. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.007
Aria, M., Misuraca, M., & Spano, M. (2020). Mapping the evolution of social research and data science on 30 years of social indicators research. Social Indicators Research, 149(3), 803–831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02281-3
Arnellos, A., & Moreno, A. (2022). Minimal perception in biological systems. Biology & Philosophy, 37(6), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-022-09873-5
Bartosch, D., Grandpierre, A., & Peng, B. (Eds.). (2023). Towards a Philosophy of Cosmic Life: New Discussions and Interdisciplinary Views. Springer Nature.. https://doi.org/10.1007/9789819921317
Boyack, K. W., & Klavans, R. (2010). Co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and direct citation. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(12), 2389–2404. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21419
Brigandt, I. (2013). Integration in biology: Philosophical perspectives on interdisciplinary research. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 44(4), 461–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2013.03.019
Brigandt, I., Love, A. C., & Laubichler, M. D. (2015). Integrating evolutionary developmental biology and philosophy of biology. Biological Theory, 10(2), 103–115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0202-0
Burnham, J. F. (2006). Scopus database review and analysis. Biomedical Digital Libraries, 3(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-5581-3-1
Calvert, J., & Schyfter, P. (2017). What can science and technology studies learn from synthetic biology? Social Studies of Science, 47(3), 321–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312717706561
Can, S. (2023). Critique of transhumanism's concept of humans from the perspective of Islamic thought. Ilahiyat Studies, 14(1), 107-131. https://doi.org/10.12730/is.1274636
Caponi, G. (2019). The natural, the secular and the supernatural. Revista de Humanidades de Valparaiso. https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2019iss14pp27-55
Ćirković, M. M. (2018). Post-postbiological evolution?. Futures, 99, 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.03.010
Dupré, J. (2018). The metaphysics of biology. Interface Focus, 8(6), 20180042. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2018.0042
Falagas, M. E., Pitsouni, E. I., Malietzis, G. A., & Pappas, G. (2008). Comparison of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar: Strengths and weaknesses. The FASEB Journal, 22(2), 338–342. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.07-9492LSF
Fernández Mateo, J. (2023). Philosophical implications of human enhancement technologies in modern biotechnology. Science and Engineering Ethics, 29(4), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-023-00449-5
Franklin, L. R. (2015). Exploratory experiments. Philosophy of Science, 72(5), 888–899. https://doi.org/10.1086/508107
Fu, R., Xu, H., Lai, Y., Sun, X., Zhu, Z., Zang, H., & Wu, Y. (2022). A VOSviewer-based bibliometric analysis of prescription refills. Frontiers in Medicine, 9, 856420. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.856420
Gambarotto, A. (2022). Teleology and biological organization in Kant and modern biology. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 44(2), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-022-00485-9
Ge, Y., & XU, Z. Is Odum’s Ecological Thought Holism?. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 34(15), 4151-4159. https://doi.org/10.5846/stxb201303120394
Kitcher, P. (2004). Philosophy of biology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(1), 571–575. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0307757101
Knuuttila, T., & Loettgers, A. (2014). Varieties of noise: Analogical reasoning in synthetic biology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 48, 76–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.08.003
Laland, K. N., Uller, T., Feldman, M., Sterelny, K., Müller, G., Moczek, A., Jablonka, E., & Odling-Smee, J. (2015). The extended evolutionary synthesis: Its structure, assumptions and predictions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 282(1813), 20151019. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1019
Lorenzano, P. (2023). Philosophy of biology in Latin America: Epistemic diversification and regional development. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 45(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-023-00536-7
Martins, J., Gonçalves, R., & Branco, F. (2022). A bibliometric analysis and visualization of e-learning adoption using VOSviewer. Universal Access in the Information Society, 22(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-022-00953-0
Mayr, E. (1982). The growth of biological thought: Diversity, evolution, and inheritance. Harvard University Press.
Mazzocchi, F. (2015). Could Big Data be the end of theory in science? EMBO Reports, 16(10), 1250–1255. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201541001
Mongeon, P., & Paul-Hus, A. (2016). The journal coverage of Web of Science and Scopus: A comparative analysis. Scientometrics, 106(1), 213–228. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1765-5
Müller, G. B. (2007). Evo-devo: Extending the evolutionary synthesis. Nature Reviews Genetics, 8(12), 943–949. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2219
Cambridge Philosophical Society. (1928). Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (Vol. 3). Cambridge University Press.. https://doi.org/10.1017/S146479310100567X
Nyhart, L. K., & Lidgard, S. (2021). Revisiting George Gaylord Simpson’s “The role of the individual in evolution”(1941). Biological Theory, 16(4), 203-212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-021-00386-7
Okasha, S. (2006). Evolution and the levels of selection. Oxford University Press.
O’Malley, M. A. (2017). Philosophy of microbiology. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 61, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2016.11.004
Pal, S., Kumar, V., & Kumar, V. (2025). Scientific mapping of global research trends on Jain philosophy: A bibliometric analysis. Journal of Data Science, Informetrics, and Citation Studies. https://doi.org/10.5530/jcitation.20250171
Pigliucci, M. (2007). Do we need an extended evolutionary synthesis? Evolution, 61(12), 2743–2749. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00246
Ratti, E. (2020). Philosophy of systems biology. Biology & Philosophy, 35(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-019-9702-8
Reinsborough, M. (2020). Art-Science collaboration in an EPSRC/BBSRC-funded synthetic biology UK research centre. Nanoethics, 14(1), 93-111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-020-00367-3
Runehov, A. (2008). Cyborgs and smart mice how human can they get?. European Journal of Science and Theology, 4(1), 5-17.
Sandler, R. (2014). The ethics of species. Environmental Ethics, 36(2), 145–162. https://doi.org/10.5840/enviroethics201436217
Small, H. (1973). Co-citation in the scientific literature: A new measure of the relationship between two documents. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 24(4), 265–269. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630240406
Sterelny, K., & Griffiths, P. E. (1999). Sex and death: An introduction to philosophy of biology. University of Chicago Press.
Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3
Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2011). Text mining and visualization using VOSviewer. ISSI Newsletter, 7(3), 50–54.
Van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2014). Visualizing bibliometric networks. In Y. Ding, R. Rousseau, & D. Wolfram (Eds.), Measuring scholarly impact: Methods and practice (pp. 285–320). Springer.
Zhang, L. (2024). AGI is Waking Up!: From the thought lab of science fiction. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-4515-9
Zupic, I., & Čater, T. (2015). Bibliometric methods in management and organization studies. Organizational Research Methods, 18(3), 429–472. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114562629
DOI: 10.24235/sc.educatia.v14i2.24261
Article Metrics
Abstract view : 0 timesPDF - 0 times
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Scientiae Educatia: Jurnal Pendidikan Sains indexed by:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


1.png)












