---
title: "Virtual reality research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “virtual reality” appeared in 897 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in information systems (259), higher education and research (252) and AI (137)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/virtual-reality
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/virtual-reality.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 “virtual reality” appeared in 897 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in information systems (259), higher education and research (252) and AI (137). (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 “virtual reality”

[Browse research topics](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/directory/page/7.md)

Research on “virtual reality” 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 “virtual reality” appeared in 897 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in information systems (259), higher education and research (252) and AI (137).
- 138 of them were published in 2025, against 41 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Zhejiang University (12), Beihang University (7) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University (7).
- The journals publishing most of them were Education and Information Technologies (92), Computers in Human Behavior (51) and International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (35).
- The most-cited of them is “Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy” (International Journal of Information Management, 2022), with 2,754 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 20 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 18 | 29 | 46 | 34 | 35 | 37 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 5 | 7 | 7 | 13 | 25 | 27 | 43 | 56 | 37 | 32 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 7 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 11 | 8 | 19 | 28 | 32 | 13 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 1 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 22 | 11 | 18 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 5 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 2 |
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| All categories | 41 | 44 | 45 | 60 | 71 | 86 | 135 | 162 | 138 | 115 |

## 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) | 92 |
| 2 | [Computers in Human Behavior](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-in-human-behavior.md) | 51 |
| 3 | [International Journal of Human-Computer Studies](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-human-computer-studies.md) | 35 |
| 4 | [Educational Technology Research and Development](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/educational-technology-research-and-development.md) | 20 |
| 5 | [Computers & Education](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/computers-education.md) | 18 |
| 6 | [Expert Systems with Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/expert-systems-with-applications.md) | 16 |
| 7 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 13 |
| 8 | [Neural Computing and Applications](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/neural-computing-and-applications.md) | 13 |
| 9 | [AI & Society](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/ai-society.md) | 13 |
| 10 | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 11 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Zhejiang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-university.md) | 12 |
| 2 | [Beihang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/beihang-university.md) | 7 |
| 3 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | 7 |
| 4 | [Nanyang Technological University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nanyang-technological-university.md) | 7 |
| 5 | [National Taichung University of Education](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/national-taichung-university-of-education.md) | 6 |
| 6 | [National Taiwan University of Science and Technology](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/national-taiwan-university-of-science-and-technology.md) | 6 |
| 7 | [The University of Sydney](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/the-university-of-sydney.md) | 6 |
| 8 | [University of Bologna](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-bologna.md) | 6 |
| 9 | [University of Edinburgh](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-edinburgh.md) | 6 |
| 10 | [University of Florida](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-florida.md) | 6 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 142 |
| 2 | United States | 92 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 61 |
| 4 | Germany | 41 |
| 5 | Australia | 34 |
| 6 | Italy | 32 |
| 7 | Taiwan | 29 |
| 8 | Hong Kong | 25 |
| 9 | India | 25 |
| 10 | Spain | 21 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | augmented reality | 123 |
| 2 | [metaverse](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/metaverse.md) | 76 |
| 3 | immersive learning | 38 |
| 4 | immersive technologies | 37 |
| 5 | mixed reality | 36 |
| 6 | extended reality | 34 |
| 7 | presence | 29 |
| 8 | [artificial intelligence](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/artificial-intelligence.md) | 28 |
| 9 | [blockchain](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/blockchain.md) | 22 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2,754 | 53.3 | [Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2022.102542) | [International Journal of Information Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-journal-of-information-management.md) | 2022-07-15 | Yogesh Kumar Dwivedi, Laurie Hughes, Abdullah Mohammed Baabdullah et al. |
| 2 | 1,448 | 15.1 | [The impact of virtual, augmented and mixed reality technologies on the customer experience](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.050) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2018-11-02 | Carlos Flavián, Sergio Ibáñez‐Sánchez, Carlos Orús |
| 3 | 1,305 | 12.2 | [Virtual reality, presence, and attitude change: Empirical evidence from tourism](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2017.12.003) | [Tourism Management](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/tourism-management.md) | 2017-12-08 | Iis P. Tussyadiah, Dan Wang, Timothy Hyungsoo Jung et al. |
| 4 | 1,194 | 10.1 | [The Future of Retailing](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2016.12.008) | [Journal of Retailing](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-retailing.md) | 2017-01-12 | Dhruv Grewal, Anne L. Roggeveen, Jens Nordfält |
| 5 | 679 | 14.3 | [Marketing in the Metaverse: Conceptual understanding, framework, and research agenda](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113420) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2022-11-17 | Kevin Giang Barrera, Denish Shah |

## Research ideas that follow this keyword

- [Metaverse retail after the hype](https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/metaverse-retail-after-the-hype.md)

## Cite this page

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

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-virtual-reality,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “virtual reality”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/virtual-reality}},
  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/).