**1. Introduction**

Academic performance is frequently associated with a country's social and economic development [1]. Numerous studies have concurred that academic achievements are the result of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, as well as the socio-cultural environment in which the learning takes place [2,3]. In this sense, academic performance is associated with intellectual factors, for example, long-term memory or the ability to think abstractly, and non-intellectual factors, such as motivation or self-discipline [4].

Motivation is an internal condition that influences behavior, i.e., mental power that helps people to meet their goals and achieve academic success [5–7]. To be able to motivate students, it is important to instill in them a greater desire to learn and make them enjoy studying. It has been proved that unmotivated students are not interested in learning or participating in class, and this attitude will affect their academic performance [6].

Scientific literature supports that cognitive abilities and self-efficacy can predict academic performance outcomes [8,9]. In 1983, Gardner explained [10] that self-sufficient people can organize themselves and carry out actions to meet their goals.

Furthermore, psychosocial wellbeing is strongly related to thoughts, motivation, and decision-making relating to academic effort [11,12]. According to Vilar et al., a poor psychosocial status may be the result of a poor socio-economic situation, unfavorable family circumstances, or a bad relationship with classmates [13]. Students in these situations tend to have a negative attitude towards school and the learning process. This results in a low level of self-discipline and bad performance. In contrast, students with a positive psychosocial dynamic tend to have a high socioeconomic level and a good family relationship. They are also optimistic and have a good attitude at school.

Other factors related to good performance at school include a healthy diet (rich in fiber and nutrients); practicing physical activity (as this increases metabolism, oxygenation and blood flow, delivering the hormones that promote neurological health); sleeping well (which improves cognitive functions, such as memory and learning) and good vision (visual impairment harms the development of motor skills, cognition, and language in child development) [14–17].

Citation network analysis is used to search for a specific topic within the scientific literature. By analyzing one publication, it is possible to find other relevant additional publications, to demonstrate, qualitatively, and quantitatively, the connections between articles and authors by creating groups [18]. Furthermore, it is also possible to quantify the most cited publications in each group, to study the development of a research field, or to focus the literature search on a specific topic [19,20].

Given the numerous factors that affect academic performance, this study aimed to identify the different areas of research and to discover the most cited publications. The connection between publications and research groups was also analysed using CitNetExplorer, software which enables the study of how the scientific literature in a particular field of has evolved.
