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Abstract

Globalization has led academics to realize the value of broadening classrooms beyond the typical school atmosphere to a place where students can engage in cross-cultural interaction. Despite being discussed in academic literature since the nineteenth century, international student mobility (ISM) did not become prominent until 2003. However, it has emerged as a global phenomenon throughout the last few decades. The present research aims to illustrate the broad patterns and developments in the relevant literature during the past six decades of ISM research. This review is a hybrid form of systematic literature review as it employs a dual approach to address its research questions, i.e., bibliometric and thematic analysis. The present study analysed 1,497 ISM article publications in 867 Scopus-indexed journals from 1964 to 2023. In doing this, the ‘Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews’ (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol is followed. The findings present a retrospective description of the ISM literature by spotting the key contributors in authorship, articles, journals and countries alongside the past, present and future research patterns. Although the field is not completely novel, surprisingly, the bibliometric analysis technique has not been efficiently used in past ISM studies. By addressing the gaps found in the few past reviews, this article thoroughly describes ISM’s knowledge foundation, production and future direction.

Keywords

International student mobility systematic literature review bibliometric analysis thematic analysis study abroad internationalization of education organizational development

Introduction

In the modern world, academics have realized the value of broadening classrooms beyond the typical school atmosphere to a place where students can engage in cross-cultural interaction. The scope, volume and complexity of higher education (HE) institutions’ foreign activities have dramatically increased over the past decades (Altbach & Knight, 2007). While the concept of studying abroad is still developing, the objectives of doing so began to expand as it became clear that it had the potential to be an important experience that would aid in the development of global citizenship. Student exchanges between nations foster goodwill and create networks that aid in future trade and intercultural interaction (Ghosh & Jing, 2020). Hence, the internationalization of education has become an essential policy and research concern.

The world of HE is an uneven and systematically structured field (Gerhards et al., 2018). Authorities have examined such an uneven and stratified state using a variety of economic stances. For instance, European policymakers have adopted international student mobility (ISM) as an integral element of HE strategy to respond to the recent calls for globalization for future cross-country economic sustainability and communal integration (Shields, 2016). As such, national governments and HE institutes have promoted ISM to improve students’ cultural awareness and competency in a more globalized and integrated society (Cleak et al., 2016). Despite being discussed in academic literature since the nineteenth century, the field of ISM did not become prominent until 2003. However, throughout the last few decades, it has emerged as a global phenomenon (Gümüş et al., 2020). There are various overlapping meanings for ISM (Wells, 2014). Some view it as integrating international students into host universities and other educational institutions as exchange or degree students (Mosneaga & Winther, 2013). Meanwhile, the UNESCO Institute of Statistics states that ‘Internationally mobile students are individuals who have physically crossed an international border between two countries to participate in educational activities in the country of destination, where the country of destination of a given student is different from their country of origin’. In 2015, the OECD, the European Union’s statistical office (EUROSTAT), and the UNESCO Institute of Statistics unanimously adopted this definition. It covers the most significant subset of international students, that is, those who moved abroad for educational reasons or to obtain higher degrees.

Statistics show that the number of international students spiked from 2 million in 2000 to around 6.3 million in 2020 (UNESCO, 2022), depicting more than a 300% rise in two decades. In conjunction with the significant rise in the scope of ISM, its study explores various aspects, including its drivers (Souto-Otero et al., 2013), impacts (Levent, 2016), challenges (López-Duarte et al., 2021; Wells, 2014) and policy implications (Riaño et al., 2018). Although related studies have grown significantly over the years in terms of their quantity, content, geographical and institutional affiliations, the bibliometric analysis technique, which seeks to provide a more comprehensive view of an academic field, has not been efficiently used in the ISM literature (Gümüş et al., 2020).

Considering the growth of ISM research, it was not surprising to see a reasonable number of review publications on the ISM domain, as discussed in the subsequent section (e.g., Gümüş et al., 2020; López-Duarte et al., 2021; Pham et al., 2021). However, generalizing the findings in these reviews may be difficult as they are confined to specific factors such as regions, data sources, etc. Moreover, many significant issues, such as how ISM research is developing, what the intellectual foundation of ISM research was in the past, what the state-of-the-art is currently, and where ISM research is going in the future, have not yet been addressed effectively. Following these stances, this article sets forth crucial ways to improve upon the strengths and weaknesses of the past reviews on ISM. First, this review reports an analysis of the global dataset, which addresses the country/regional-specific limitation reported by López-Duarte et al. (2021) (Europe), Pham et al. (2021) (Asia) and Browne et al. (2015) (Australia). Furthermore, this review thoroughly describes ISM’s knowledge foundation, production and future direction using a co-citation analysis (i.e., ISM_past = knowledge foundation), a keyword co-occurrence analysis (i.e., ISM_present = knowledge production) and thematic analysis (i.e., ISM_{future =} knowledge potential), following Donthu et al. (2021) and Lim et al. (2022) recommendations. Thus, adding unique contributions and broadening the insights of ISM presented in the past reviews.

Therefore, the current study aims to perform an exhaustive review of ISM articles published in reputed sources. A hybrid review design is used to review ISM papers in Scopus-indexed journals, an electronic database that indexes and monitors publication sources that fulfil strict quality standards for indexing (Fetscherin & Heinrich, 2015). This review employs the ‘Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews’ (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol. The goal is to highlight the existing state of knowledge development in the ISM domain from a broader angle rather than thoroughly synthesizing the results of a few studies. To illustrate the broad patterns and changes in the relevant literature during the past six decades, the study focuses on a relatively wide range of papers in addition to the previous reviews. Therefore, with this objective, a bibliometric analysis of ISM papers has been carried out to address the following crucial research questions (RQs).

RQ1: What are the performance trends in ISM research?

RQ2: What are ISM research’s thematic patterns (intellectual structure) in the past, present and future?

The remainder of the article is structured as follows. The article summarizes reviews presently published in the ISM field and shows how this review advances previous research. Next, the paper reveals the techniques and procedures used to examine ISM literature. Further, the paper describes the bibliometric and intellectual foundation for ISM discovered throughout the review. Then, it concludes with the research agenda for ISM.

Review of Past Reviews on ISM

Many literature reviews on ISM have been published over the last few decades of research. The summary of 15 relevant review studies is presented in Table 1. However, most of the review studies concentrate primarily on thematic elements that elucidate the notion of ISM by reviewing the challenges and outcomes of ISM initiatives (e.g., Knight-Grofe & Deacon, 2016; Levitt et al., 2021; López-Duarte et al., 2021; Roy et al., 2019; Russell et al., 2021; Stadler & Rojas, 2019). For instance, López-Duarte et al. (2021) review the unfulfilled objectives and primary obstacles affecting ISM, including luring non-European students into degree programmes, the necessity of systemic and programme convergence to ensure genuine compatibility, the effect of HE ISM on the advancement of European consciousness and citizenship, the glaring disparity between degree and credit mobility, the necessity of fortifying the connection between employability and ISM, the social selectivity that currently exists in Europe, and the frequent issues with social segregation that international students encounter. Similarly, Roy et al. (2019) review studies on the various outcomes students who participate in short-term ISM programmes face and group these outcomes into broad categories related to cultural, personal and career/employment outcomes.

Table 1.

Representative Review Studies on ISM.

Studies	Type of Study	Methodology	Period	Review Corpus	Main Ideas
Browne et al. (2015)	Qualitative	Systematic thematic synthesis	Unspecified	8	Assessing the present state of knowledge regarding overseas clinical placement that Australian undergraduate nursing programmes offer
Knight-Grofe and Deacon (2016)	Qualitative	Thematic analysis	Unspecified	Unspecified	Examines recent trends in Canada and six other countries to compare approaches to international learning experiences and review the justifications for a high level of engagement in international education
Roy et al. (2019)	Qualitative	Systematic literature review	Unspecified	75	The review offers a thorough analysis of research regarding various outcomes of students’ involvement in short-term ISM programmes
Stadler and Rojas (2019)	Qualitative	Review and case study	Unspecified	Unspecified	Review the research on integrating institutional goals in academic courses
Gümüs. et al. (2020)	Quantitative	Systematic literature review	1980–2018	2064	Examining and demonstrating the evolution of ISM research over the past few decades using science mapping tools
Naghmeh-Abbaspour and Sabokrouh (2020)	Qualitative	Literature review	1964–2017		Exploring the methods used while teaching individuals with special needs English as a foreign language
Akiyama et al. (2020)	Qualitative	Content analysis	2010–2020		Examining reforms made to Japan’s undergraduate medical curriculum in psychiatry and its consequences
Baek et al. (2021)	Qualitative	Systematic review	Unspecified	18	Evaluating the psychometric qualities of tools created in Korea or translated from the originality to find possible enhancements and additions for these tools
Levitt et al. (2021)	Qualitative	Meta-synthesis review	2003–2018	21	Advancing knowledge of the learning outcomes as reported by allied health students participating in an overseas placement
López-Duarte et al. (2021)	Qualitative	Content analysis	2000–2018	Unspecified	Exploring the significant challenges and gaps in achievement for ISM in the European context
Pham et al. (2021)	Quantitative	Systematic literature review	1984–2019	401	Reviewing the research on ISM in academic institutions in Asia by international scholars
Russell et al. (2021)	Qualitative	Systematic literature review	2010–2021	34	Analysing the measurable relationships between workforce retention and initiatives to retain health workers in high-income countries’ rural and remote regions
Klimova and Pikhart (2022)	Qualitative	Systematic literature review	2009–2022	9	Presenting a systematic overview of state-of-the-art research in the area of corrective feedback using new technologies for foreign language learning
Barbosa and Ferreira-Lopes (2023)	Quantitative	Literature review	Unspecified	254	Bibliometric analysis of research on telecollaboration and virtual exchange, and further explores the advantages and disadvantages of the technical tools adopted by studies in the review corpus
Bouchaib (2023)	Qualitative	Thematic analysis	2005–2022	90	Presenting a thematic overview of the academic research about the cooperation and exchange in education between China and Africa

Furthermore, the other side of the review studies has focused on ISM approaches and experiences unique to specific regions or countries (e.g., Baek et al., 2021; Bouchaib, 2023; Browne et al., 2015; Knight-Grofe & Deacon, 2016; Russell et al., 2021). Interestingly, few bibliometric reviews on the domain were recently reported (e.g., Gümüş et al., 2020; López-Duarte et al., 2021; Pham et al., 2021). Gümüş et al. (2020) employ a scientific mapping tool to review the existing knowledge of ISM over the past three decades. While López-Duarte et al. (2021) explore the significant challenges and gaps in achievement for ISM in the European context, Pham et al. (2021) review the research on ISM to academic institutions in Asia. Therefore, generalizing the findings in these reviews may be difficult as they are confined to specific factors such as regions, data sources, etc. Following this stance, this article sets forth crucial ways to improve upon the strengths and weaknesses of the past reviews of ISM.

In this review, the analysis of a global dataset is conducted, which addresses the country/regional-specific limitation reported by López-Duarte et al. (2021) (Europe), Pham et al. (2021) (Asia) and Browne et al. (2015) (Australia). Furthermore, this review thoroughly describes the knowledge foundation, production and future direction of ISM using co-citation analysis, keyword co-occurrence analysis and thematic analysis, which is in line with Donthu et al. (2021) and Lim et al. (2022) recommendation. Hence, broadening the insights of ISM presented in prior reviews (e.g., Gümüş et al., 2020; López-Duarte et al., 2021; Pham et al., 2021; Roy et al., 2019).

Methodology

Systematic literature reviews (SLR) are a rigorous and scientific approach to secondary research used extensively in HE and, later, in ISM (e.g., Roy et al., 2019; Shields, 2019). There are various SLR approaches, such as theory-centred, domain-centred and meta-analysis reviews (Paul et al., 2021). However, this article is a domain-based SLR focusing on ISM, a domain on its own. Although there are numerous domain-centred SLRs (such as framework-based, bibliometric, conceptual, hybrid reviews, etc.), this review employs a mix-design approach to address its research questions (bibliometric and thematic). Thus, this review can be considered a hybrid form of SLR.

Deploying a review procedure has become a standard practice for SLRs, as it encourages objectivity and replicability of the review results (Lim et al., 2021). This review’s ‘systematic’ feature is directed by the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, a rigorous and fundamental review protocol for SLR papers (Paul et al., 2021).

Bibliometric Analysis

The bibliometric analysis technique is adopted to address the (RQ1) of the review. The primary role of a bibliometric analysis is the exploration of performance in terms of publication activities across subjects, areas, authors and so on. Pritchard (1969) initially introduced the word ‘bibliometrics’, which he described as ‘the application of mathematical and statistical methods to articles and other means of communication’ (p. 349). Bibliometric analysis uses statistical methods to assess the progress of a particular field. This reduces biases by providing a broad perspective on the study domain (Merigó et al., 2015). The transparency of this method and its ability to manage large volumes of data were recognized by scholars as the primary justifications for using the technique (Donthu et al., 2021), among its many other benefits. Performance analysis and science mapping are the two basic subdivisions of bibliometric analysis (Donthu et al., 2021).

Performance analysis is employed to evaluate the contributions of authors, articles, journals and countries based on publications and citations (Baier-Fuentes et al., 2019). The main performance analysis techniques frequently used are descriptive analysis, which explains the contributors according to their publications, and citation analysis (Donthu et al., 2021). Science mapping is employed to create networks of articles using their features (Donthu et al., 2021).

Past studies recommend that ‘co-citation analysis’ may be used to explain the ‘knowledge foundation’ (past), while the ‘keyword co-occurrence analysis’ may be employed to show ‘knowledge production’ (present) of the study area (ISM) (Donthu et al., 2021). Hence, both are carried out in this study.

Thematic Analysis

The thematic analysis calls for systematic qualitative data extraction from documents to find, examine and report themes (Agyekum et al., 2019). The thematic analysis allows researchers to deal with themes emerging from the study’s information (Ampratwum et al., 2021). While the analysis is sometimes considered a competent qualitative research method (Lim, 2019), it is also mixed with other alternate qualitative techniques (Holloway & Todres, 2003). To map out future research in the field, this study adhered to Lincoln and Guba (1985) standards for reliability whilst following the Braun and Clarke (2006) thematic analysis process.

The SPAR-4-SLR Protocol

This SLR of ISM research is conducted in line with the SPAR-4-SLR procedure developed by Paul et al. (2021), as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Review Procedure Following Paul et al. (2021) SPAR-4-SLR. Protocol.

Assembling

This is the initial step of the SPAR-4-SLR procedure. It first involves identifying the study area, research questions, source types and quality. Then, the ‘acquisition’ aspect of documents under review. The primary focus of this review identifies ISM as the review domain, and research questions (RQ1 and RQ2) are concerned with ‘what’ makes up the performance and intellectual pattern of ISM scholarship.

The ‘source type’ relates to ‘articles’ published in ‘journals’ only since they represent the primary sources of academic works that are extensively peer-reviewed and the most common platform of research communication (Sánchez et al., 2017). Hence, other documents such as books and book chapters are not considered for the analysis.

The Scopus database was employed as a proxy of ‘source quality’ since journals indexed there are considerately more extensive compared to its equivalents (Vanhala et al., 2020). Also, the database was utilized as the search engine and data ‘acquisition’ method because it offers necessary bibliometric data and accessible links to the document. The search range covered the years 1964 to 2023 since, according to Scopus, this is when publications on ISM began appearing in journals.

The search keywords are ‘study abroad, student mobility, global mobility, student exchange, foreign student, international student’ in the ‘titles, abstracts, and keywords’ of articles. A total of 867 journals returned a total of 1,504 English-language papers on ISM. The comma-separated values (.csv) and bib text (bib) formats were used to save the bibliometric data since they are compatible formats for bibliometric visualization tools such as Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. These bibliometric files were retrieved in May 2023.

Arranging

The ‘organizing’ and purifying (i.e., inclusion and exclusion) constitute the second stage of the SPAR-4-SLR protocol. The bibliometric information for articles was organized by ‘article title, journal title, author name, affiliation country, author keyword, and number of citations’. During the process, seven articles were eliminated due to duplication, wrong entry or missing values; hence, 1,497 articles were used in the analysis.

Assessing

Assessing, the third and last step of the SPAR-4-SLR process, entails evaluating and reporting the articles under consideration. The Excel tool was utilized to calculate the publication pattern, the article, authors, countries and journal performance. Biblioshiny was employed to dissect information relating to research clusters, ‘co-citations’, and ‘keyword co-occurrences’. Biblioshiny presents a descriptive analysis as graphs, tables and images, distinct from other software (Moral-Muñoz et al., 2020). Figure 1 illustrates the hierarchical pattern for the analysis.

The review findings are finally reported using standard reporting methods in subsequent sections, comprising words, tables and figures.

Results

The review’s findings are divided into two sections, each corresponding to one of the study’s questions: performance analysis (RQ1), which focuses on ISM data, author, article, country, and journal performance and intellectual pattern (RQ2), which covers ISM ‘knowledge foundation’ (past), ‘knowledge production’ (present) and ‘knowledge potential’ (future), as shown via scientific mapping using ‘co-citation, keyword co-occurrence and thematic’ assessments, respectively.

Performance Analysis

Publication Activity/Corpus Performance

A total of 1,497 ISM publications over the 60 years between 1964 and 2023 were analysed. The rising trend of ISM articles, which represents the field’s research interest, is shown in Figure 2. The evaluation period is divided equally into six 10-year periods (1964–1973, 1974–1983, 1984–1993, 1994–2003, 2004–2013 and 2014–2023). This is done to understand the publication trend per decade.

Figure 2.

Number of ISM Articles Published During (1964–2023).

The analysis shows only one ISM article published in the first decade (1964 to 1973), which suggests that the topic was not explored in the early years when the concept was initially established. The next decade (1974 to 1983) still observed poor growth in the publication of ISM articles (n = 3). This is not the usual practice in a developing subject of study. Notably, the field’s first 40 years had relatively little development, with n = 52 in the fourth decade. Freeman (1964) laid the foundation of ISM research by explaining the need to create an international scholarship society. He argues that international scholarship needs to be worldwide in scope, exhibiting a cohesive intellectual effort and efficient two-way communication.

The last decade (2014–2023) was the highest productive decade for ISM literature, with a minimum of 64 papers published annually and 1,082 articles published throughout this span. This period saw increased connectivity made possible by the rising need for globalization, resulting in better sponsorship opportunities. Furthermore, the years after 2019 (the year COVID-19 unexpectedly stagnated the globe) were the most fruitful for ISM research, with 144, 162 and 171 publications for 2020, 2021 and 2023, respectively. This is higher than the previous five decades (1964–2013) of ISM research (n = 415), suggesting that research is facilitated during incidents like epidemics and lockdowns. This is consistent with the general trend in academic research in 2020, which saw an exponential rise in scholarly publishing due to the COVID-19 epidemic (Sloane & Zimmerman, 2021).

Authors Performance

ISM papers from 3,877 authors were included in the review collection. Since authors offer various viewpoints regarding the output, influence and impact of their scholarship, the h-index and total citations were employed to assess the performance of ISM authors. The 10 most productive ISM authors are shown in Table 2. The leading three ISM authors, according to the h-index, which represents the output and impact of ISM authors, are Rahimi, Blackmore and Gribble.

Rahimi’s initial research examines Australian students studying international business and accounting and their transition to the labour market. Similarly, Blackmore’s work focuses on how Australian migration policy affects international students’ post-study work entitlements. Gribble studies the regulations and effects of the international student movement on sending countries. According to total citations, which measure the influence of ISM authors (Donthu et al., 2021), Gribble, Rahimi and Teichler are the top three ISM authors. An insight that should encourage aspiring authors to publish high-quality ISM articles is that authors can significantly impact the literature regardless of how frequently they publish ISM articles. This is shown by the total citation score of the top three authors in Table 2.

Table 2.

Most Productive Authors.

Rank	Author Name	H-index	Articles	Citations
1	Rahimi J	5	5	198
2	Blackmore J	4	4	162
3	Gribble C	4	4	272
4	Liu Y	4	5	78
5	Saito K	4	4	99
6	Teichler U	4	4	167
7	Tran LT	4	4	50
8	Van Mol C	4	5	114
9	Aresi G	3	3	51
10	Ayhan KJ	3	4	18

Article Performance

Local citation analysis was employed to determine the most cited ISM articles by other ISM articles. As such, the performance of ISM articles in terms of citations can be assessed more accurately. Table 3 presents the top 10 ISM papers in the review corpus and their corresponding findings.

Table 3.

Most Cited Articles.

Rank	Article	Local Citations	Title	Findings
1	Lesjak et al. (2015)	13	Erasmus student motivation: Why and where to go?	ISM is motivated by students’ aspirations to develop professionally and personally while studying overseas, but students’ destination selection is influenced by the place’s general and touristic elements.
2	Doyle et al. (2010)	10	An investigation of factors associated with student participation in study abroad	Early awareness of the value of studying abroad, continuous student support, cultural, social and linguistic aptitude, and the degree to which studying abroad has been successfully incorporated into degree programmes are all factors linked to ISM.
3	Petrosoniak et al. (2010)	10	International health electives (IHEs): thematic results of student and professional interviews	IHEs were characterised as unreliable, transient contributions with no specific educational goals and the ability to address the local community’s concerns.
4	Böttcher et al. (2016)	9	Gender gap in the ERASMUS mobility programme	Compared to the total tertiary students, female students are overly represented in the ERASMUS programme.
5	Jackson (2008)	9	Globalization, internationalization and short-term stays abroad	Students with socio-pragmatic awareness and higher intercultural sensitivity extend beyond merely noting cultural differences and instead demonstrate more empathy.
6	Mohajeri and Gillespie (2009)	9	How study abroad shapes global careers	Studying abroad and sustaining language proficiency have a major positive career impact.
7	Walsh and DeJoseph (2003)	8	‘I saw it in a different light’: International learning experiences in baccalaureate nursing	Three primary themes emerge from the experiences of nursing science students and mentors: ‘other’, ‘I was already a nurse’, and ‘expanding my worldview’.
8	Edmonds (2012)	7	An integrative literature review of study abroad programmes for nursing students	Substantial evidence regarding American nursing students studying abroad, including the benefits and difficulties of their experiences, is limited.
9	Jacobone and Moro (2015)	7	Evaluating the impact of the Erasmus programme: skills and European identity	Study abroad initiatives positively influence the perceptions of college students.
10	Van Mol (2013)	7	Intra-European student mobility and European identity: A successful marriage?	Mobile students are forming an ‘experience-based social Europe’ due to socialization processes that transcend the political boundaries of the European Union and are characterized by both external and internal identity perceptions.

Lesjak et al. (2015) was the ISM article in the corpus that received the most local citations (13 citations). The article used the Erasmus Programme as a case study to examine the motives behind ISM. As an initiative of the European Union (EU), the Erasmus Programme offers EU students opportunities for academic mobility between partner universities throughout Europe. The programme is regarded as significantly contributing to HE within and outside the EU.

Doyle et al. (2010) examined the factors influencing individuals’ involvement in studying abroad among students in New Zealand. The study identified and explored factors relating to the prompt understanding of study abroad benefits such as consistent student support, cultural, social and language skills, and the degree to which the experience has been built into degree programmes.

Petrosoniak et al. (2010) investigate the issues (advantages and disadvantages) of medical trainees’ participation in international health electives (IHEs). This study adds to the continuing discussion regarding the objectives and impacts of IHEs for medical students.

The top 10 ISM papers in the corpus that were most locally cited received 89 citations. Compared to large worldwide citations, key works’ relatively low (local) citations provide a different perspective. The fact that the field is open to more than just one domain suggests its complexity. This is worrying, but the present review could help in addressing it. Future research is expected to gain from the foundational ISM studies discussed in this section.

Journal Performance

Overall, 1,497 ISM articles were published by 867 journals that Scopus indexed. Table 4 highlights the top 10 journals that account for 17.8% of the corpus’ articles and have published at least eight ISM articles each. Six journals have gotten at least 200 citations, while 7 have published at least 10 ISM articles.

Table 4.

Most Relevant Sources.

Rank	Source	H-index	Citations	Articles
1	Journal of Studies in International Education (JSIE)	15	1006	40
2	Higher Education	10	517	16
3	Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development	9	254	13
4	Nurse Education Today	8	193	15
5	BMC Medical Education	7	139	16
6	Foreign Language Annals (FLA)	7	373	18
7	System	7	204	10
8	Annals of Global Health	6	85	9
9	Computer-assisted Language Learning	6	280	8
10	International Journal of Educational Management	6	158	9

The top three most contributing journals based on the publication of ISM articles are the Journal of Studies in International Education (40 articles), Foreign Language Annals (18 articles) and Higher Education (16 articles). Recently, JSIE has published articles on topics such as the internationalization of HE and post-study work rights, ISM as a source of revenue, the factors affecting students’ cultural adaptability and more. The FLA’s recent focus is on foreign language learning across various contextual settings, utilizing online technologies such as machine translation and intercultural competence. Similarly, Higher Education has recently placed considerable focus on topics including HE staff experiences, feedback literacy, entrepreneurial competence of HE students, and pedagogy and learning approaches in HE.

In contrast, the leading three journals based on productivity and influence as defined by h-index are the Journal of Studies in International Education (h: 15), Higher Education (h: 10) and Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (h: 9), while the first three most influential journals as determined by the total citations gained are Journal of Studies in International Education (1,006 citations), Higher Education (517 citations) and PLOS One (373 citations). Furthermore, it is observed that the highest productive journals were not mandatorily the most impactful ones, as less productive journals also proved competent in publishing highly cited papers, such as Computer Assisted Language Learning, which had less than 10 ISM articles but gained over 270 citations each.

Country Performance

The authors of the ISM papers in the study corpus came from 76 countries. According to the total articles and citations, Table 5 lists the top 10 productive countries. Based on overall articles, the top 10 nations account for 42% of the total articles in the corpus. The top three nations with over 12 ISM articles are the United States (US), China and the United Kingdom (UK). In contrast, in total citations, the top 15 nations account for 83.3% of the review corpus.

Table 5.

Most Prolific Countries.

Rank	Country	Article(s)		Citations
Rank	Country	Number (n)	Percentage	Citations
1	USA	256	17.10%	4,227
2	China	95	6.35%	1,320
3	UK	67	4.48%	1,130
4	Australia	59	3.94%	1066
5	Canada	37	2.47%	464
6	Spain	35	2.34%	275
7	Germany	32	2.14%	648
8	Japan	32	2.14%	155
9	Korea	24	1.60%	430
10	Turkey	22	1.47%	208

The top three countries with more than 1,000 citations each are the US, China and the UK, collectively accounting for 48.9% of citations in the ISM articles. Although it is incredible to see a combination of developed and developing nations make it into the top 10 list of the countries with the highest publication of articles, it is intriguing to see the mix at about equal proportions making an effect in the ISM sector. Emerging policies, which are frequently linked to contributions from both settings, are one of the likely causes. Although the policies are more prevalent in developed nations, their effective utilization often proves significant in emerging countries.

Intellectual Structure

Knowledge Foundation of ISM

This study conducted a ‘co-citation analysis’ to unveil the body of knowledge (past) underpinning ISM research. Based on their thematic similarity, highly referenced ISM articles referred to frequently by other ISM articles are recognized and grouped in this study (Martínez-López et al., 2018).

Six major clusters of articles that ISM articles rely on for theoretical underpinning were identified using the analysis of co-citations and discussed in the following section. The network between the six clusters, which includes 39 ISM articles that other ISM papers have frequently cited, the ‘PageRank’, which quantifies the degree of centrality between articles, as well as their corresponding findings, are presented in Table 6. The PageRank algorithm’s basic idea can be broadly approximated to the ‘influence’ indicator, which assesses the impact of articles by considering the number of citations from one article to another (Ma et al., 2008). Given that the PageRank criteria bear more details on the linking connections between citing and cited articles, it provides a more comprehensive view of the influence of the ISM articles in the review corpus.

Table 6.

Knowledge Foundation (Past): A Co-citation Analysis.

Cluster	Theme	Paper	PageRank	Findings
1	Developmental psychology and language learning	Vygotsky (1978)	0.0244	Criticizes the notion that play is defined as an activity that a youngster enjoys as being inaccurate.
		Crystal (2003)	0.0325	The potential for an English ‘family’ of languages, English on the Internet, and English’s position as a global language in the future.
		Gardner (1985)	0.0569	Learning rate was influenced by integrative motivation, language aptitude and presenting style.
		Dörnyei (2005)	0.0197	Described the foundation for a novel approach that integrates motivation for learning a second language through a self-framework.
		Patton (2002)	0.0154	Outlines the key advancements in qualitative inquiry, including emerging trends and ethical issues in light of the field’s possible effects.
		Cohen (1988)	0.0103	Presents the significance of set correlation as a technique for conducting general multivariate analysis.
		Graddol (2006)	0.0269	Documents significant trends in the usage of English around the world and points out the facts in a changing world, emphasizing the essential effects on English education, the global economy, and policy consequences.
		Lave (1991)	0.0161	Social institutions shape socio-cognitive activities and suggest that learning be viewed as a process that involves acquiring knowledge and building a sense of identity as a community member.
		Wenger (1998)	0.0239	Developed the idea of ‘communities of practice’ and described learning as a ‘social’ system.
2	Self-efficacy and international elective courses	Braun (2006)	0.0371	Describe thematic analysis and place it in the context of other qualitative analytic techniques that look for patterns or themes and various ontological and epistemological stances.
		Bandura (1997)	0.0144	The concept of perceived self-efficacy pertains to an individual’s belief in their ability to achieve specific goals.
		Cheng and Dörnyei (2007)	0.0144	Assures that some motivational techniques used in language teaching can be applied in various ethnolinguistic and cultural contexts.
		Petrosoniak (2010)	0.0260	Highlights the benefits and drawbacks of IHEs.
		Elit et al. (2011)	0.0364	Five major themes of ethical dilemmas have been identified.
3	Internationalization of higher education	Knight (2004)	0.0278	Policies, funding, programmes and regulatory frameworks at the national/sector levels significantly impact internationalization, but institutional-level institutions are where the actual internationalization process occurs.
		Altbach (2007)	0.0446	Internationalization is driven by various factors, including but not limited to monetary advantage, acquiring knowledge and languages, expanding the curriculum to incorporate international aspects.
		Bourdieu (1986)	0.0179	Recognized theoretical evaluations of various forms of capital.
		Murphy-Lejeune (2002)	0.0332	Shows international students’ views of mobility motives, how ISM affects social and cultural settings, and the process and problems of adjusting to different cultures.
		Teichler (2004)	0.0311	Highlights conflicts between efforts to promote acknowledgement of earlier research on student mobility and the growing diversity of HE.
		Teichler (2007)	0.0259	The study contended that when education collapsed, a large coalition supporting meritocratically justified inequality and those wishing to reduce it dissolved.
		Brooks & Waters (2011)	0.0237	Provides a basic discussion of the elements that affect a decision to study abroad for HE while highlighting some patterns in which ISM is evolving.
		González (2011)	0.0488	Determinant factors such as country size, distance, cost of living, university quality, educational background, the host country language and climate are all found to affect ISM significantly.
		Knight (2008)	0.0138	Highlights recent advancements and trends in the international aspect of HE during turbulent and transformative times.
		De Wit (2002)	0.0190	Provides a historical, conceptual and comparative overview of HE internationalization in Europe and the United States.
		Sigalas (2010)	0.0317	Erasmus Students spent more time socializing with other Europeans while studying abroad but had limited interaction with students in the host country.
		Findlay et al. (2012)	0.0214	Studying abroad allows students to accumulate various social and cultural capital, and further argues that analysis of ISM should not be limited to a model that isolates study abroad from students’ broader life goals.
		Hsieh (2005)	0.0078	Describe the analytical processes involved in conventional, directed or summative content analysis approaches addressing reliability.
		Li and Bray (2007)	0.0337	Excess and differentiated demand drive cross-border flows of mainland Chinese students seeking higher education.
		Bodycott (2009)	0.0148	Parent–student assessments of importance differ, and recruiters should focus more on cultural values when recruiting students from Confucian communities.
4	Culture learning in an international context	Byram (1997)	0.0461	Proposed a framework for teaching languages and cultures that incorporates the use of both host country and foreign languages.
		Kramsch (1993)	0.0193	The debate between content and skill in foreign language instruction is persistent, where language is only a skill, a tool with no intrinsic intellectual worth.
		Crossman & Clarke (2010)	0.0110	The results show a strong correlation between international experience and employability, given the benefits of networking, experiential learning, language learning and soft skills development.
		Kolb (1984)	0.0131	Examine research from the perspective of experiential learning theory and its current applications to adult development, the workplace and education.
		Anderson et al. (2006)	0.0328	Short-term programmes can benefit the general advancement of intercultural sensitivity.
		Byram et al. (2002)	0.0255	Assess the definitions, goals and evaluation criteria for sociocultural competency in language acquisition and descriptions of teaching techniques.
5	Global health training	Drain et al. (2007)	0.0256	The interest and involvement of medical students in global health have grown, but medical schools remain reluctant to adopt.
5	Global health training	Drain et al. (2009)	0.0256	International rotations help resident physicians practice medicine among marginalized and multicultural populations, strengthen their examination skills and increase their medical expertise.
6	The role of languages	Phillipson (1992)	0.0256	Addresses the historical dissemination of English, its use in Third World nations, and the ideas that the language has promoted.
6	The role of languages	Bourdieu (1991)	0.0256	Provides new insight into the ways that language is employed in the political sphere and how it differs depending on factors like gender and class.

Developmental psychology and language learning

Cluster 1 consists of ISM articles on developmental psychology and language learning. ISM research under this cluster was mostly carried out by ISM scholars such as Vygotsky and Cole (1978), Crystal (2003), Gardner (1985), etc. Articles within this cluster focus on the theoretical stances and empirical evidence relevant to the drivers and outcomes of developmental psychology and language learning. Vygotsky and Cole (1978) have long been acknowledged as pioneers in developmental psychology, and the theoretical framework is frequently regarded as the basis of ISM research. Although English is regarded as a universal language, Crystal (2003) explores its origins, status and prospects as the international language of communication. Gardner et al. (1985) studied how motivation, attitudes and reported language use affect second language attrition.

Self-efficacy and international elective courses

Cluster 2 comprises ISM papers on theoretical developments, self-efficacy and international elective courses. Studies in this cluster were mainly published by authors such as Braun (2006), Bandura (1997), Cheng and Dörnyei (2007), etc. The ISM articles in this cluster mainly centred around the theoretical viewpoints and evidence relating to the conceptualization, operationalization and application of ISM and the language learning outcome of students’ experience interacting with international students. Bandura (1977) made the best attempt at categorizing, summarizing and extracting meaning from past literature. Braun and Clarke (2006) consider potential thematic analysis difficulties and develop a clear roadmap for those aiming to start or rigorously conduct the analysis. Cheng and Dörnyei (2007) explore the key motivating strategies and factors determining success in foreign language (L2) learning.

Internationalization of higher education

Cluster 3 comprises ISM articles on the internationalization of HE and student mobility. ISM articles within this network are published by authors such as Knight (2004), Altbach (2007) and Bourdieu (1986). Knight (2004) studies the implications of internationalization at both the national and institutional levels. Bourdieu (1986) established theoretical reflections on various forms of capital related to ISM research. Altbach and Knight (2007) proceeded to ‘unpack’ the antecedents of globalization and conceptualized internationalization in HE and further discuss its effect on universities.

Culture learning in an international context

Cluster 4 comprises ISM articles on culture learning in international education. Research under this cluster was mainly carried out by ISM scholars such as Byram (1997), Kramsch (1993) and Kolb (1984). Kolb (1984) set forth the theoretical foundation of ISM research through the lenses of experiential learning theory. While Kramsch (1993) emphasized that the essence of cross-cultural reflections should not be discarded due to communication practices, Byram (1997) explores the need for cultural awareness in Britain.

Global health training

ISM articles on global health training framed cluster 5. Drain et al. (2007) highlight the advantages of providing medical students with additional global health education and opportunities and recommend vital steps for addressing global health concerns. Subsequently, Drain et al. (2009) contend that even though most accreditation agencies and residency programmes do not provide enough support, more resident physicians still acquire international experience.

The role of languages

Cluster 6 comprises ISM articles on the role of languages. As Bourdieu (1991) documented the relationship between language, power and politics, Phillipson (1992) further examines the modern phenomenon of English being used across borders and discovers how and why it has grown so prevalent.

Knowledge Production of ISM

A ‘keyword co-occurrence’ evaluation was done to pinpoint how ISM research produces knowledge (present). The keywords listed by authors for their ISM articles are retrieved and clustered based on how closely related they are thematically (Martínez-López et al., 2018). In this way, ISM’s research is reflected in the clusters found by the co-occurrence analysis. The analysis discovered five clusters, as discussed in the subsequent section. The network between these five clusters, which includes 44 keywords that have been featured in the ISM articles, is presented in Table 7. ‘Betweenness’ quantifies the centrality of a keyword that links two other keywords, whereas ‘Closeness’ assesses how long data will be spread from a specific keyword to other keywords in the network. The crafting of each cluster’s interpretation draws on sensemaking, in which the cluster’s keywords are structured to communicate a logical argument that best describes the cluster’s purpose and scope (Donthu et al., 2021).

Table 7.

Knowledge Production (Present): A Keyword Co-occurrence Analysis.

Keyword	Cluster	Theme	Betweenness	Closeness	PageRank
Intercultural competence	1	ISM as a means to intercultural competence and global citizenry	51.8222	0.0098	0.0238
Virtual exchange			58.8580	0.0095	0.0189
Intercultural communication			0.0000	0.0075	0.0106
Global citizenship			0.0000	0.0068	0.0066
Telecollaboration			18.4402	0.0084	0.0201
Education	2	ISM in the European context	164.3550	0.0132	0.0477
Mobility			57.6048	0.0109	0.0250
Nursing			0.0000	0.0086	0.0169
Students			1.4895	0.0092	0.0144
Erasmus			1.8739	0.0087	0.0144
Online learning			11.4752	0.0094	0.0118
International educational exchange			3.2485	0.0092	0.0169
Language learning			0.0000	0.0075	0.0072
Europe			1.9182	0.0103	0.0119
Higher education	3	Motivations for ISM	193.7182	0.0139	0.0813
Study abroad			292.2150	0.0143	0.0860
Student mobility			95.0396	0.0125	0.0560
International students			53.9098	0.0122	0.0442
Internationalization			67.9266	0.0119	0.0388
China			10.6269	0.0114	0.0258
COVID-19			19.8298	0.0111	0.0279
Globalization			18.3354	0.0109	0.0258
International education			45.4456	0.0114	0.0349
International student mobility			3.7486	0.0106	0.0203
Internationalization			0.1838	0.0094	0.0130
Culture			0.0000	0.0084	0.0083
EFL			0.5136	0.0100	0.0105
Academic mobility			0.0000	0.0101	0.0081
Motivation			0.0000	0.0096	0.0091
Foreign students			1.2612	0.0108	0.0159
Student exchange			4.0336	0.0106	0.0163
Japan			8.8915	0.0109	0.0172
Global competence			0.0000	0.0093	0.0134
Employability			0.1333	0.0088	0.0092
Global education			0.0000	0.0089	0.0053
Globalization			2.0598	0.0104	0.0099
Global health	4	ISM for health sciences	96.1782	0.0115	0.0367
Medical education			0.0000	0.0078	0.0150
Nursing students			10.6913	0.0098	0.0204
Nursing education			10.0484	0.0097	0.0204
Qualitative research			0.0000	0.0079	0.0127
International exchange programs	5	International mobility of academic staff in HE	0.0000	0.0091	0.0263
Internationalization of higher education			2.1244	0.0095	0.0198
Mobility of students and academic staff			0.0000	0.0091	0.0254

ISM as a means to intercultural competence and global citizenry

Cluster 1 consists of ISM articles concentrating on ISM as a means to intercultural competence and global citizenry. The ‘co-occurrence’ of authors’ keywords in this network suggests that ISM research explore how ‘intercultural communication’ can influence the ‘intercultural competence’ of international students and their ability to gain ‘global citizenship’ through various means such as ‘virtual exchange’ and ‘telecollaboration’.

ISM in the European context

ISM articles focusing on ISM in the European context are found in cluster 2. The ‘co-occurrence’ of these keywords depicts that ISM research in this network examines how to acquire ‘education’ through various ‘students’ ‘mobility’ programmes like ‘international educational exchange’ and ‘online learning’, which facilitates ‘language learning’ taking the case study of ‘Erasmus’ in ‘Europe’.

Motivations for ISM

ISM articles that discuss motivations for studying abroad compose cluster 3. The ‘co-occurrence’ of these keywords indicates that research in this network explores ‘motivation’ for the ‘internationalization’ of HE together with the factors that affect ‘study abroad’, including ‘culture’, ‘globalization’, employability’, and ‘COVID-19’. Moreover, due to multiple imposed ‘student mobility’ restrictions, ISM research is currently focused on COVID-19 heavily impacted countries, like ‘China’ and ‘Japan’.

ISM for health sciences

Cluster 4 comprises ISM articles focusing on health sciences. The keywords co-occurrence in this network depicts that the ‘qualitative research’ technique is highly employed in studies on ISM for ‘global health’ related programmes, particularly ‘medical education’ and ‘nursing education’.

International mobility of academic staff in HE

Cluster 5 consists of ISM articles exploring academic staff mobility. The keywords co-occurrence in this network shows that ISM research within this network investigates the recent focus of ‘internationalization of higher education’ through various ‘international exchange programs’, which are manifesting in the form of ‘mobility of students and academic staff’.

Outcomes of ISM Programme

Thematic analysis was carried out on the papers on outcomes of ISM in the review corpus. Based on the articles reviewed on this theme, the outcomes of ISM programmes can be broadly classified into three key areas: personal, professional and cultural outcomes (see Figure 3).

Figure 3.

ISM Knowledge Foundation and Outcomes.

Personal outcomes resulting from ISM programmes, as evident in the literature, include knowledge of morals and ethics (Luo & Jamieson-Drake, 2015), better academic performance (Luo & Jamieson-Drake, 2015) and improved personal growth (Potts, 2015). Studies have also explored the impact of ISM programmes on professional-related outcomes, including professional growth (Winslade, 2016), enhanced employability (Potts, 2015) and greater financial gain (Kratz & Netz, 2018). Similarly, research has discussed various cultural outcomes resulting from participating in ISM programmes’ including intercultural competence (Winslade, 2016), global citizenry (Greenfield et al., 2012), cultural diversity and language competence (Roy et al., 2019).

Conclusion

This study has provided an exhaustive and academic review of ISM scholarship revealed in 1,497 articles published across 867 Scopus-indexed journals for six decades (1964 and 2023). By doing so, this article provided seven important insights about the pattern of ISM research, which could be helpful to potential researchers who wish to revisit state-of-the-art regarding its most extensive form. This article did this by providing answers to two research questions. After presenting the main conclusions from the past and current review of ISM research, this article will propose the potential knowledge in the subject that new researchers can take into consideration as research directions. Table 8 depicts the ISM research knowledge mapping discussed in the review.

Table 8.

ISM Research Knowledge Mapping.

Knowledge Foundation (Past)		Knowledge Production (Present)	Knowledge Potential (Future)
Co-citation Analysis	Key References	Keyword Co-occurrence	Thematic Analysis
o Developmental psychology and language learning	Vygotsky (1978), Crystal (2003), Gardner (1985), Dörnyei (2005), Patton (2002), Cohen (1988)	o ISM as a means to intercultural competence and global citizenry	o Revisiting ISM through computer-aided instruction (e-learning)
o Self-efficacy and international elective courses	Braun (2006), Bandura (1977), Cheng and Dörnyei (2007), Petrosoniak (2010), Elit et al. (2011)	o ISM in the European context	o Mobility of engineering education
o Internationalization of higher education	Knight (2004), Altbach (2007), Bourdieu (1986), Murphy-Lejeune (2002), Teichler (2004), Teichler (2007)	o Motivations for ISM	o Sustainability in higher education institutions (HEIs)
o Culture learning in an international context	Byram (1997), Kramsch (1993), Crossman (2010), Kolb (1984), Anderson (2006), Byram (2002)	o ISM for health sciences	o ISM for medical courses
o Global health training o The role of languages	Drain et al. (2007), Drain et al. (2009). Phillipson (1992), Bourdieu (1991).	o International mobility of academic staff in HE	o Teaching staff mobility

Future Research Directions (Knowledge Potential)

In order to propose directions for future research, this review draws on a thematic analysis related to Keyword Plus. The future topics were identified using the steps suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006). The thematic analysis considers the implications of studies in the review corpus. Therefore, the recent articles related to the identified research theme were considered for thematic review, and the propositions are summarized in the subsequent sections. Thus, the analysis proposes five main future research directions that potential authors may explore to expand the intellectual framework of ISM.

Revisiting ISM Through Computer-aided Instruction (E-learning)

With the rapid technological growth, particularly in e-learning, such as artificial intelligence (AI), which continues to transform the educational landscape, it is essential to reconsider the strategies employed in ISM programmes. Cheng-Ta (2023) argues that computer-aided instruction improves students’ learning habits through an interactive interface and an easy-to-learn environment. Future studies should examine the key benefits and drawbacks of integrating e-learning into the educational environment.

Proposition I: Key benefits and drawbacks in embedding and integrating AI, which can improve ISM policy development, implication, outcome and impact on the educational environment.

Propose RQ1a: What are the main benefits and costs of implementing AI in the formulation of ISM policies?

Propose RQ1b: How does integrating AI technologies affect the educational environment?

Mobility of Engineering Education

As international collaboration keeps transforming the world of engineering education, future research should discover globalization factors and practical assessment methods and their significance to ISM. Tell and Hoveskog (2022) propose that a creative learning approach, like student-led learning in an applied engineering curriculum, assists learners in developing their soft skills better than lecture-style learning.

Proposition II: Globalization factors such as diversity and inclusion, cross-cultural experiences and technology-enhanced learning significantly transform the engineering landscape.

Propose RQ2a: What are the impacts of globalization factors such as cross-cultural experiences, diversity and inclusion and technology-enhanced learning in transforming the engineering landscape?

Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

Though ISM is becoming increasingly significant, attention is needed regarding the sustainability of HEIs (Shields, 2019). Integrating sustainability and digitization will be essential for optimizing ISM’s capabilities and improving cross-cultural cooperation in HE.

Proposition III: ISM impacts the environment through increasing carbon emissions.

Proposition IV: Virtual mobility is significant in addressing policy concerns, student support services and encouraging ethical and sustainable behaviour, particularly in HEIs.

Propose RQ3a: To what extent does ISM contribute to environmental impact by increasing carbon emissions?

Propose RQ3b: What are the roles of virtual mobility in addressing policy issues, encouraging ethical practices and sustainability in HEIs?

ISM for Medical Courses

ISM for medical education is essential for advancing and addressing global healthcare issues. To solve global health challenges, authorities struggle to train and retain medical practitioners and researchers (Campos & Rocha, 2021). Internationalizing medical education could be attained by utilizing digital resources, resolving ethical and equity concerns and embracing novel pedagogical approaches.

Proposition V: International clinical experiences and collaboration significantly improve the global healthcare environment.

Proposition VI: Medical student exchange programmes significantly enhance practitioners’ research capabilities and skills.

Propose RQ4a: How do international clinical experiences and collaboration enhance the global healthcare system?

Propose RQ4b: What are the roles of medical students’ mobility in enhancing their research capabilities and skills?

Teaching Staff Mobility

Teaching staff mobility is essential for fostering knowledge exchange and professional growth in HE. It is argued that most teachers have not participated in exchange programmes (Vázquez et al., 2020). Future research should explore the relevance of professional networks and institutional support in facilitating effective knowledge exchange, enhancing teaching practices and promoting internationalization in education.

Proposition VII: Teachers’ professional networking and institutional support contribute to promoting the internationalization of education.

Propose RQ5a: What role does professional networking among teachers play in the globalization of education?

Propose RQ5b: How does institutional support contribute to promoting academic staff mobility?

Limitations

Despite the extensive review of past and current ISM research and the framing of research-informed opportunities for potential authors in shaping the direction of ISM literature, the present study faces three major limitations.

First, conference proceedings and book chapters were not included in this analysis; future studies can still study ISM using these types of material. Second, the analysis is confined to the data obtained from the Scopus database. Even though previous studies (Donthu et al., 2021; Paul et al., 2021) have recommended the use of Scopus as a retrieval mechanism, it is important not to ignore the possibility of missing ISM studies published in journals other than the ones indexed in Scopus, such as Web of Science (WOS) or Emerald. Therefore, future reviews of ISM can consider the WOS database as a validation approach to either challenge or corroborate the results in this review. Third, even though this review gives an overview of ISM research up to May 2023, it will likely continue evolving, prompting more bibliometric analysis of the ISM literature. It will be crucial to replicate the analyses reported herein once ISM research has advanced and to compare the discovered findings with those discussed herein.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

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Analysis of the Past,Present and the Future of International Student Mobility: A Retrospective Review

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Review of Past Reviews on ISM

Methodology

Bibliometric Analysis

Thematic Analysis

The SPAR-4-SLR Protocol

Review Procedure Following Paul et al. (2021) SPAR-4-SLR. Protocol.

Assembling

Arranging

Assessing

Results

Performance Analysis

Publication Activity/Corpus Performance

Number of ISM Articles Published During (1964–2023).

Authors Performance

Article Performance

Journal Performance

Country Performance

Intellectual Structure

Knowledge Foundation of ISM

Developmental psychology and language learning

Self-efficacy and international elective courses

Internationalization of higher education

Culture learning in an international context

Global health training

The role of languages

Knowledge Production of ISM

ISM as a means to intercultural competence and global citizenry

ISM in the European context

Motivations for ISM

ISM for health sciences

International mobility of academic staff in HE

Outcomes of ISM Programme

ISM Knowledge Foundation and Outcomes.

Conclusion

Future Research Directions (Knowledge Potential)

Revisiting ISM Through Computer-aided Instruction (E-learning)

Mobility of Engineering Education

Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)

ISM for Medical Courses

Teaching Staff Mobility

Limitations

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

References