Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide researchers, policymakers and practitioners with a state-of-the-art snapshot of the competence-based education and training (CBET) research domain by identifying its main research streams, as well as its dominant and under-explored research areas. Design/methodology/approach – We employed direct citation network analysis to examine the intellectual structure of CBET research and identify its main research streams across 1, 090 journal articles. To further explore the themes within these streams, we applied topic modelling with latent semantic analysis. Findings – CBET is a fragmented research domain, based on the citation relationships among articles and the diversity of journals in which they have been published. Its core consisted of 231 articles, from which three main research streams emerged: the Higher Education Stream, the Vocational and Professional Education Stream, and the General Education Stream. We present six dominant topics covered by the research streams and highlight the need for future studies that transcend educational levels. Originality/value – We employ novel methods to provide researchers, policymakers and practitioners with the first topical overview of CBET research. © 2025 Joonas Mannonen, Felipe Urrutia, Raija Hämäläinen, Roberto Araya, Sami Lehesvuori and Danial Hooshyar
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