Safety and health in the entertainment industry: A bibliometric, scientometric, and thematic analysis

Abstract

Safety and health issues in the entertainment industries have traditionally received little attention in the research, often overshadowed by the celebratory framing of artistic production. However, the complexity and ever-changing nature of work within entertainment, with its physical demands, psychosocial pressures, and emerging technological risks, have gradually attracted greater academic attention. This study aims to map the intellectual structure, growth, and thematic development of safety and health research in the entertainment industries using a bibliometric analysis. A systematic search of the Scopus database yielded 1,206 publications published between 1990 and 2025, which were retrieved and analysed. Bibliometric, scientometric, and thematic analyses have been carried out on the MetaInfoSci platform using the BibTrail, SciTrace, and ThemantiX modules. The analysis examined publication trends, leading journals, prolific authors and institutions, and the field’s thematic evolution through Sankey visualisation, word cloud, and BERT-based topic modelling. The results show a clear long-term growth pattern, with a significant rise in publications after 2015, indicating that safety and health in the entertainment industries have moved from a niche topic to a more established area of research. Scholarly output continues to be concentrated in specialised medical and health journals, but growing contributions of public health, psychological and interdisciplinary journals indicate thematic diversification. Core research themes remain focused on health in the performing arts, and new ones reflect the growing importance of digital technologies, virtual reality and data-driven approaches. This study provides a broad overview of the field’s development and identifies opportunities for future research, including interdisciplinary integration, greater geographical representation, and closer links between research, policy, and practice.