Trends in Legal Communication Research: A Decadal Bibliometric Analysis (2015-2025)

Abstract

The growing and interdisciplinary nature of legal communication highlights the need for a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to map research trends and scholarly impact in this field. This study aims to assess scientific outputs, authorship patterns, institutional and national contributions, and thematic developments in legal communication research from 2015 to 2025. The study examines a dataset of 1,630 publications produced by 4,496 authors using RStudio for bibliometric analysis. The findings revealed a collaborative level 
with an average of 2.95 co-authors per document and 16.1% international collaborations. Additionally, there is an increase in research output from institutions such as McGill University and the University of California. The US and the UK have the highest productivity and citation impact in legal communication research. Moreover, the analysis showed a strong focus on human-centered and gender-related topics, with “human,” “humans,” “female,” and “male” being the most frequent terms. However, issues such as “decision making” and “informed consent” are less explored but suggest a gradual increase in research interest. This study provides insights into trends, 
priorities, and global engagement in legal communication to suggest future research directions.