What do we know about career and development? Insights from Career Development International at age 25

Purpose Career Development International ( CDI ) is an established source of scientific research on careers and development. The journal reached its 25-years milestone in 2021. To commemorate the occasion, the article aims to provide a retrospective of the major trends, research constituents, thematic structure and key factors explaining the citation impact of CDI articles between 1996 and 2020. Design/methodology/approach The article extracts bibliographic data of CDI from Scopus and uses that data in (1) a series of bibliometric analyses to explain the major trends, research constituents and thematic structure and (2) a negative binomial regression analysis to explain the key factors affecting the citation impact of CDI. Findings The article finds that CDI has progressed and contributed substantially to the scientific community since its inception 25 years ago. The contributions in CDI are mainly from America and Europe and can be organized around five major clusters, namely career development, work engagement, entrepreneurship career, career outcomes and career mentoring. Research limitations/implications The article provides a rich overview of CDI, but the findings are limited to the accuracy and availability of bibliographic data of CDI from Scopus. Originality/value The article extends Akkermans and Kubasch's (2017) 5-years retrospection of major journals on career and development through a 25-years retrospection of CDI, and in doing so, the article provides a longer and more accurate representation of CDI's contributions to the extant literature on career and development.