---
title: "Student motivation research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “student motivation” appeared in 1,183 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (961), management (72) and information systems (63)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-motivation
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-motivation.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “student motivation” appeared in 1,183 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (961), management (72) and information systems (63). (as of 2026-11-05)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-05T06:02:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-07 to 2026-11-05
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “student motivation”

[Browse research topics](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/directory/page/6.md)

Research on “student motivation” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “student motivation” appeared in 1,183 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in higher education and research (961), management (72) and information systems (63).
- 153 of them were published in 2025, against 80 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (26), National Taichung University of Education (25) and Yuan Ze University (22).
- The journals publishing most of them were Education and Information Technologies (205), Educational Technology Research and Development (49) and Computers & Education (41).
- The most-cited of them is “Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review” (International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2017), with 1,452 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 53 | 66 | 63 | 88 | 90 | 115 | 130 | 141 | 129 | 86 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 9 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 9 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 5 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 80 | 87 | 73 | 104 | 123 | 138 | 153 | 163 | 153 | 109 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Education and Information Technologies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/education-and-information-technologies.md) | 205 |
| 2 | [Educational Technology Research and Development](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/educational-technology-research-and-development.md) | 49 |
| 3 | [Computers & Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-education.md) | 41 |
| 4 | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 29 |
| 5 | [Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-and-education-artificial-intelligence.md) | 26 |
| 6 | [IEEE Transactions on Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ieee-transactions-on-education.md) | 25 |
| 7 | [Smart Learning Environments](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/smart-learning-environments.md) | 24 |
| 8 | [Computers and Education Open](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-and-education-open.md) | 21 |
| 9 | [Studies In Educational Evaluation](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/studies-in-educational-evaluation.md) | 14 |
| 10 | [Educational Research Review](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/educational-research-review.md) | 12 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [National Taiwan University of Science and Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/national-taiwan-university-of-science-and-technology.md) | 26 |
| 2 | [National Taichung University of Education](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/national-taichung-university-of-education.md) | 25 |
| 3 | [Yuan Ze University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/yuan-ze-university.md) | 22 |
| 4 | [Education University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/education-university-of-hong-kong.md) | 19 |
| 5 | [University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-hong-kong.md) | 17 |
| 6 | [Central China Normal University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-china-normal-university.md) | 16 |
| 7 | [Beijing Normal University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beijing-normal-university.md) | 11 |
| 8 | [Chinese University of Hong Kong](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chinese-university-of-hong-kong.md) | 11 |
| 9 | National Cheng Kung University | 10 |
| 10 | [Zhejiang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-university.md) | 10 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 136 |
| 2 | Taiwan | 73 |
| 3 | United States | 73 |
| 4 | Hong Kong | 46 |
| 5 | Turkey | 36 |
| 6 | Germany | 35 |
| 7 | Spain | 33 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 29 |
| 9 | Malaysia | 18 |
| 10 | South Korea | 17 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [student engagement](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-engagement.md) | 114 |
| 2 | [academic performance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/academic-performance.md) | 69 |
| 3 | [university students](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/university-students.md) | 63 |
| 4 | gamification | 56 |
| 5 | student self-regulation | 48 |
| 6 | [self-efficacy](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/self-efficacy.md) | 45 |
| 7 | [online learning](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/online-learning.md) | 44 |
| 8 | [higher education](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/higher-education.md) | 43 |
| 9 | [learning outcomes](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/learning-outcomes.md) | 37 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,452 | 12.5 | [Gamifying education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-017-0042-5) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2017-02-20 | Christo Dichev, Darina Dicheva |
| 2 | 744 | 16.1 | [The effect of generative artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool use on students' computational thinking skills, programming self-efficacy and motivation](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2023.100147) | [Computers and Education Artificial Intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-and-education-artificial-intelligence.md) | 2023-01-01 | Ramazan Yılmaz, Fatma Gizem Karaoğlan Yılmaz |
| 3 | 494 | 5.5 | [Investigating self-directed learning and technology readiness in blending learning environment](https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0147-0) | [International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-educational-technology-in-higher-education.md) | 2019-05-20 | Shuang Geng, Kris M. Y. Law, Ben Niu |
| 4 | 400 | 3.7 | [Social media as a complementary learning tool for teaching and learning: The case of youtube](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2017.12.001) | [The International Journal of Management Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/the-international-journal-of-management-education.md) | 2017-12-07 | Sedigheh Moghavvemi, Ainin Binti Sulaiman, Noor Ismawati Jaafar et al. |
| 5 | 394 | 5.5 | [Students’ motivation and engagement in higher education: the importance of attitude to online learning](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00657-5) | [Higher Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/higher-education.md) | 2020-11-19 | Justine Ferrer, Allison Ringer, Kerrie Saville et al. |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “student motivation”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-motivation

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-student-motivation,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “student motivation”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/student-motivation}},
  urldate = {2026-11-05},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).