Research content analysis for a period of 60 years for the journal of national Taiwan normal university and journal of research in education sciences

The present study examined and analyzed the articles and studies published in the Journal of National Taiwan Normal University and Journal of Research in Education Sciences during the 60-year period from 1956 to 2017. A total of 1,345 published studies were analyzed and classified into seven categories—article contents, participants, research topics, research types, research methods, contributions of authors, and citation analysis. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The volume, publications, and numbers of authors of the journals have been increased. (2) The highest number of studies were conducted on human samples, followed by language samples, mathematical test samples, and other samples. (3) Early research topics were concentrated on science education, history, and philosophy. However, during the past 60 years, articles on these topics declined year by year. The Journal of National Taiwan Normal University mainly included studies on language and literature and the Journal of Research in Education Sciences mainly included studies on learning and teaching. (4) The highest number of studies employed empirical designs, followed by discourse studies. Non-research articles were the fewest. (5) The majority of studies followed quantitative or qualitative research designs. Quantitative research was mainly based on experimental methods and survey research; qualitative research was mainly based on literature research methods; mixed-methods research has been increased in the past 30 years. (6) Citation references were primarily to English studies with the majority of the citation to books and journals. In recent years, the citation to electronic resources has been increased and the citation to books has declined year by year. (7) A comparative analysis of 2015 impact factors in eight major education journals was conducted. The Journal of Research in Education Sciences was ranked first for its impact factor. In this paper, previous research results and presents suggestions for future research are discussed.