Addressing meta-research is contemporaneous with a nascent call in the field of applied linguistics and L2 studies for methodological awareness. Adhering to synthetic techniques and bibliometric analysis, we manually examined and coded the methodological orientations and scientific collaboration of 3,992 applied linguistics articles published in 18 leading journals from 2009 to 2018 and analyzed their citation impact. The results showed that 178 (4.5%) of articles were non-empirical and the rest were empirical. Among empirical articles, the most prevalent research approach was quantitative (42.6%), followed by mixed-methods research studies (25.9%) and qualitative studies (24.9%). Systematic reviews (2.2%) were the smallest groups. Systematic reviews had a bigger citation impact than the other three research approaches. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the number of citations of the other three approaches (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods). The rates of collaboration in general and international collaboration and interdisciplinary collaboration in particular were significantly higher in quantitative articles than the articles of other research approaches. Education and psychology were two disciplines that had the highest rate of collaboration with applied linguistics researchers.

解决元研究与应用语言学和 L2 研究领域对方法论意识的新生呼唤同时进行。坚持综合技术和文献计量分析，我们对 2009 年至 2018 年发表在 18 种主要期刊上的 3,992 篇应用语言学文章的方法论方向和科学合作进行了人工检查和编码，并分析了它们的引用影响。结果显示，178 篇 (4.5%) 的文章是非经验性的，其余的是经验性的。在实证文章中，最流行的研究方法是定量（42.6%），其次是混合方法研究（25.9%）和定性研究（24.9%）。系统评价 (2.2%) 是最小的群体。系统评价比其他三种研究方法具有更大的引文影响。然而，其他三种方法（即定量、定性和混合方法）的引用次数在统计上没有显着差异。定量文章中的一般合作率，特别是国际合作和跨学科合作的比率明显高于其他研究方法的文章。教育和心理学是与应用语言学研究人员合作率最高的两个学科。定量文章中的一般合作率，特别是国际合作和跨学科合作的比率明显高于其他研究方法的文章。教育和心理学是与应用语言学研究人员合作率最高的两个学科。定量文章中的一般合作率，特别是国际合作和跨学科合作的比率明显高于其他研究方法的文章。教育和心理学是与应用语言学研究人员合作率最高的两个学科。