# Pragmatic Language Impairment: A Scientometric Review
## 4 Discussion  
In this scientometric review, we embarked on a systematic exploration of the progression and state of research on PLI, a condition that is characterised by difficulties in language use within social contexts, turn-taking, and contextual understanding. Our results were presented in two segments, the first dealing with bibliometric indicators such as publications by year, top-contributing countries, universities, journals, publishers, subject/research domains, and authors. The second segment delved into scientometric indicators, such as citation, co-citation, and co-occurrence indicators. To answer the first question, the bibliometric indicators reveal seven important observations. First, research on PLI has seen a notable increase in the past two decades. This suggests a potential role for these technologies in the diagnosis and treatment of PLI. Second, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia emerged as the primary contributors to the body of PLI research. Third, universities in the UK in particular were found to be the most prolific institutions in the field. Fourth, the journals publishing most frequently in this area were those associated with speech and language disorders, autism, clinical linguistics, and neurolinguistics. Fifth, Elsevier and Wiley were the primary publishers. Sixth, the domains of medicine, psychology, social sciences, and linguistics were frequently connected to PLI research. The seventh and final observation revealed [PERSON] [61], [PERSON] [9], and [PERSON] [59] as key contributors to the field. To answer the second question, merging the bibliometric findings with the scientometric indicators allows us to draw four significant implications. First, the most frequently searched keywords in PLI research indicate the popular topics of interest within the field. These include language disability [106], social communication disorder [43], language disorder [107], autism spectrum disorder [108], verbal behaviour [109], conversational characteristics [79], pragmatic language impairment [110], deficit [111], specific language impairment [112], and mind [113]. This insight can help shape the future direction of PLI research by identifying the areas of highest interest or greatest concern. Using bibliometric data, we identified the top 10 cited articles in each database. These explored various topics assessment [9], autism [9; 76], and gaze behaviour [63; 64]. Second, our analysis of 2,852 documents related to PLI yielded several major co-citation clusters, including social communication disorder [43], traumatic brain injury [114], autism spectrum disorder [108], and inferential meaning [115]. Further exploration of \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **WoS** & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Scopus**} \\ \hline
**Sigma** & **Reference** & **Cluster ID** & **Sigma** & **Reference** & **Cluster ID** \\ \hline
0 & [PERSON] [81] & 0 & 0 & [PERSON] [20] & 0 \\
0 & [PERSON] [81] & 0 & 0 & [PERSON] [100] & 1 \\  & American & & & & \\
0 & Psychiatric & 0 & 0 & [PERSON] [101] & 1 \\  & Association [6] & & & & \\
0 & [PERSON] [102] & 3 & 0 & [PERSON] [17] & 0 \\
0 & [PERSON] [103] & 1 & 0 & [PERSON] [80] & 2 \\
0 & [PERSON] [7] & 0 & 0 & [PERSON] [81] & 0 \\
0 & [PERSON] [87] & 0 & 0 & [PERSON] [72] & 4 \\
0 & [PERSON] [104] & 1 & 0 & [PERSON] [87] & 0 \\
0 & [PERSON] [105] & 5 & 0 & [PERSON] [77] & 0 \\
0 & [PERSON] [84] & 0 & 0 & [PERSON] [96] & 0 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 8: Sigma Metrics for Pragmatic Language Impairment Using Scientometric Analysis. these clusters revealed four distinct patterns that could guide subsequent research and therapeutic strategies. Third, by combining bibliometric and scientometric indicators, we could identify the most influential, central, and productive authors in the field. For example, [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] have been instrumental in exploring the connections between PLI, autism, and developmental language disorder [61; 116; 117].