Problem-Based Learning in Medical Education: A Global Research Landscape of the Last Ten Years (2013–2022)

Problem-based learning (PBL) constructs a curriculum that merges theory and practice by employing clinical scenarios or real-world problems. Originally designed for the pre-clinical phase of undergraduate medicine, PBL has since been integrated into diverse aspects of medical education. Therefore, this study aims to map the global scientific landscape related to PBL in medical education in the last ten years.

We combined bibliometrics and network analysis to analyze the metadata of related research articles published between 2013 and 2022 and indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection.

Our results show an annual publication rate of 9.42%. The two main journals disseminating research on this subject are BMC Medical Education and Medical Teacher. Education & Educational Research and Health Care Sciences & Services are the two most frequent research areas, and also the two most central nodes of the related network. The USA and China are the most publishing countries, while the Netherlands and Canada are the most collaborative. The Maastricht University holds the position of most publishing and collaborative research organization. The University of California ranks second in publications, while the University of Toronto is the second most central research organization.

Our study provides an overview of the last ten years of publications related to PBL and medical education, and we hope it can be of interest to educators, researchers, and students involved with this subject.