Video games have always been an object of leisure and entertainment for children and adults. Ignorance has led many people to view these types of games in a negative, violent or addictive way. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the use of video games in the field of education, specifically in mathematics and history, and to identify the benefits of playing video games on students’ academic performance. Method: a search was carried out in different databases: Pubmed, Web of Science, SciELO and Scopus, including studies published up to March 2021. Results: video games in the historical field improve learning, historical academic performance and their approach to students as well as motivation, fun and engagement, history comprehension and acquisition; and in mathematics, improve academic performance and math learning, problem solving, entertainment, fun and enjoyment, as well as the commitment and involvement of students in mathematics. Conclusions: most of the studies show the usefulness of video games during the learning process of history and mathematics for children. The implementation of video games at school increases the academic performance of students and improves their motivation. Therefore, the incorporation of video games as an educational tool is recommended.

The production and development of doctoral theses have grown exponentially with the advent of the Internet and the democratization of access to information and education. In the field of education, this production is no stranger to this trend, so it is interesting to analyze the implications, causes and scientific–academic contributions of this increase. To this end, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out using the PRISMA 2020 protocol, with the Dialnet database as the documentary source, based on a previous study that justified its use and the availability of documents. Thus, a set of pre-established criteria are defined to identify doctoral theses carried out in Spanish universities and related to the education area that have been published in the last 17 years, finding a total of (n = 120) publications whose analysis answered the researchers’ questions focused on identifying patterns and strategies in the publication and methodological design of this type of document and what is the role of systematic reviews of the literature in them. In this sense, this research process aimed to analyze this kind of production and facilitate the process of designing new theses and research projects in the field of education. In this sense, this research process aimed to analyze this sort of output and facilitate the process of designing new theses and research projects in the field of education. The results make it possible to identify the increased importance of SLR in the development of doctoral theses and reveal the predominant models related to this type of production. Additionally, other aspects, such as the most common universities or research fields, the quantity and nature of subsequent studies, etc., concerning doctoral theses that incorporate an SLR were determined. Thus, conducting an SLR represents a solid and structured approach to initiate and build up the research process of doctoral theses, being essential to address students’ potential training needs in these regards.

Advances in technology and changes in the way people entertain themselves have made video games a cultural agent on a par with more traditional games, including language learning. In addition, the use of video games in education is becoming increasingly common and numerous benefits associated with their use have been discovered. The aim of this article is to analyze the search trends in studies dealing with the use of video games in language learning. To this end, a bibliometric analysis was carried out by applying the traditional laws of bibliometrics (Price’s law, Bradford’s law of concentration, Lotka’s law, Zipf’s law and h-index) to documents published in journals indexed in the Core Collection of the Web of Science (WoS). Annual publications between 2009 and 2022 show an exponential growth R2 = 86%. The journals with the most publications are Computer assisted language learning (Taylor & Francis) and Computers and Education (Elsevier). Jie Chi-Yang and Gwo Jen-Hwan were the most cited authors. The United States and Taiwan were the countries with the highest scientific output. The use of video games in language learning has been of particular interest in recent years, with benefits found for students who use them in their classes, although more research is needed to establish criteria and requirements for each video game for its intended purpose.

Advances in technology and changes in the way people entertain themselves have made video games a cultural agent on a par with more traditional games. In addition, the use of video games in education is becoming increasingly common and numerous benefits associated with their use have been discovered. The aim of this article is to analyze the search trends in studies dealing with the use of video games in language learning. To this end, a bibliometric analysis was carried out by applying the traditional laws of bibliometrics (exponential growth law, Bradford's law of concentration, Lotka's law, Zipf's law, etc.) to documents published in journals indexed in the Core Collection of the Web of Science (WoS). Annual publications between 2009 and 2022 show an exponential growth R2=86%. The journals with the most publications are Computer assisted language learning (Taylor & Francis) and Computers and Education (Elsevier). Jie Chi-Yang and Gwo Jen-Hwan were the most cited authors. The United States and Taiwan were the countries with the highest scientific output. The use of video games in language learning has been of particular interest in recent years, with benefits found for students who use them in their classes, although more research is needed to establish criteria and requirements for each video game for its intended purpose.