How Multidisciplinary is Gamification Research? : Results from a Scoping Review

Gamification has been repeatedly framed as an emerging multidisciplinary research field. However, it is unclear how multidisciplinary the field actually is. To answer this question, this paper presents initial results of a broader scoping review of gamification research published between 2010 and 2016. Close to 2,000 peer-reviewed English-language journal and conference papers were identified across 11 databases and categorized by discipline. Results indicate an explosive growth of literature peaking in 2015. Early on, Information and Computing Science dominated the field, to be overtaken by the sum of other disciplines in 2013, education, economics and tourism in specific. This indicates that gamification was initially a field within computer science and HCI and has only recently become truly multi-disciplinary.