Over the past decade, network analysis has emerged as a quantitative methodology for modelling discourse or assessment in research in Physics Education. This article provides a comprehensive systematic review of the applications of network analysis in empirical studies published between 2013 and 2023, based on the Scopus database. We address the research goal for examining (1) the Physics Education research topics that apply network analysis; (2) the role of network analysis as a quantitative methodology in Physics Education research. The author follows the framework developed by Okoli for presenting a systematic literature review. Out of 259 identified documents, 83 articles were analysed as the final documents. The analysis results indicate that out of the 83 articles, 72.29% of the applications of network analysis in Physics Education research are used to investigate topics related to learning, curriculum, and social interaction. Additionally, 27.71% of network analysis applications in Physics Education research are used to investigate concepts and measurements. Thus far, the reported progress in the reviewed articles provides references for developing network analysis approaches in various contexts in the field of Physics Education, including sample size and algorithms used. This paper can serve as a reference for Physics education research or other related fields, such as Social Network Analysis (SNA), curriculum evaluation, providing guidance for teachers in developing Physics learning materials, studying the latent structure of an instrument, etc. Ultimately, network analysis is expected to contribute meaningfully to the development of future research.

The author in presenting systematic literature review follows the framework developed by Okoli [5] which consists of 8 stages, namely (1) identity the purpose; (2) draft protocols; (3) apply practical; (4) conduct literature review; (5) extract data; (6) appraise quality; (7) synthesis studies; and (8) write and review. These eight steps have also been implemented by Elmoazen et al.

The results of the analysis obtained show that network analysis has so far had three important roles in general. First, review the research by applying Social Network Analysis (SNA). Secondly, network analysis is used to explore the construction of further instruments. And third, network analysis is used to evaluate the curriculum. So far, the advances reported in the reviewed articles provide references for developing network analysis approaches in a variety of contexts in the field of Physics Education, including sample sizes and the algorithms used so that network analysis provides a growing meaning as a future field of research study.

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