Feifan Yang, Wen Liu, Wanqiu Fu
This study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 3,017 publications in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology ( JECP ) from 1999 to 2024 using CiteSpace and VOSviewer. The results show that publication output has exhibited a fluctuating upward trend since 2009 while maintaining relatively strong citation performance. The United States remains the leading contributor to JECP , whereas the participation of Chinese research has increased steadily over time. Keyword analyses reveal three major thematic domains reflected in JECP publications: cognitive development, language and academic abilities, and social development. Although foundational topics such as working memory, executive function, and language development remained central throughout the study period, research themes gradually expanded toward social cognition, prosocial behavior, moral development, and culturally embedded developmental processes. Increasing scholarly attention was also observed for cognitive control and methodological approaches such as eye-tracking. Overall, the findings provide a journal-centered perspective on the thematic evolution reflected in JECP over the past 26 years.