The aim of this study is to assess the impact of PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) on international scientific journals. A bibliometric analysis was conducted of publications included in three main scientific publication databases: Eric, EBSCOhost and the ISI Web of Knowledge, from 2002 to 2010. The paper focused on four main questions: who carried out these studies, in which academic journals have the articles been published, what has been the evolution of these publications and what were the main article topics? The study concludes that PISA has had a considerable impact on the scientific research, reflected primarily by university-based authors from the areas of education and social sciences analysing student performance. The evolution since 2007 seems to indicate that more articles will be published in coming years through the initiative of researchers (rather than the editorial boards), even from other scientific areas, thus increasing the number of topics of analysis. (Contains 11 tables and 4 figures.)