Trends of Positive Youth Development Publications 1995-2020

Tufts University/Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development Leads the World in Publications about Positive Youth Development
Across the Last Quarter Century, 1995-2020

The Tufts University Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD) is the world leader in publications about Positive Youth Development (PYD), according to a new report by scholars from two universities in China (Qi, Hua, Zhou, & Shek, 2021) reporting in Applied Research in Quality of Life.

Using scientometric analysis, Professor Qi and colleagues analyzed the growth in PYD publications from 1995, when only one article was published on this topic through 2020, where the total number of PYD publications grew to 1,436.

The most productive country publishing PYD was the United States, followed by China.

Tufts University was the institution in the U.S. publishing the majority (106) of U.S. articles on PYD.

Across all nations, Richard M. Lerner, Director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD), was the second highest first author involved in these publications (80) and Jacqueline V. Lerner (Boston College School of Education) was the third highest first author involved in PYD publications (35). Professor Daniel Shek, of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, led the world in first-authored publications (118) during the 26 years reviewed by Qi et al. (2021).

Richard Lerner and colleagues 2005 PYD article in the Journal of Early Adolescence was the most highly cited paper across the years, with 100 citations, and IARYD colleagues had four (4) publications in the list of “Top 10” cited articles.