Introduction/Rationale: Bibliometric analysis can reveal connections between literature that cannot be discerned through traditional reviews.
Objectives: To document the state of science related to co-occupation and evaluate collaboration networks between authors and institutions supporting the literature.
Methods/Approach: Metadata from 90 articles on co-occupation, a prominent construct with wide reach, was collected from Web of Science (WoS) and Dimensions and imported into CitNetExplorer and VosViewer (mapping software) for relational analyses of citation networks, author and institutional networks, and co-occurrence of terms and keywords.
Results/ Practice Implications: 245 authors from 142 institutions in 24 countries contributed to the literary set on co-occupation. The institutions and author groups showed >55 distinct clusters of working groups. Foundational work and highly cited authors were identified. Authors used 2094 terms and 268 unique keywords to describe their work on co-occupation; these terms and keywords formed unique clusters, indicating areas of focus in studies on co-occupation. The co-author, institutions, terms, and citation analysis are depicted on network maps.
Conclusion/ Contribution to the occupational therapy profession: Co-occupation as a construct has a broad range of descriptive terms and clusters of topics. The author teams and institutions supporting this work are situated across the globe but work in tight-knit groups. Although this may hamper information sharing, it may also allow for creative expression of novel ideas. The introduction of science mapping to occupational science and occupational therapy holds great potential to evaluate the evolution of the field, audit the scope of theories influencing specific constructs, and analyze emerging trends and core publications within broader literature.