Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2022; 28(33): 4909-4919
Published online Sep 7, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i33.4909
Global research trends in the field of liver cirrhosis from 2011 to 2020: A visualised and bibliometric study
Pei-Ling Gan, Shu Huang, Xiao Pan, Hui-Fang Xia, Xin-Yi Zeng, Wen-Sen Ren, Xian Zhou, Mu-Han Lv, Xiao-Wei Tang
Pei-Ling Gan, Xiao Pan, Hui-Fang Xia, Xin-Yi Zeng, Wen-Sen Ren, Xian Zhou, Mu-Han Lv, Xiao-Wei Tang, Department of Gastroenterology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646099, Sichuan Province, China
Pei-Ling Gan, Xiao Pan, Hui-Fang Xia, Xin-Yi Zeng, Wen-Sen Ren, Xian Zhou, Mu-Han Lv, Xiao-Wei Tang, Department of Gastroenterology, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Shu Huang, Department of Gastroenterology, The People’s Hospital of Lianshui, Huaian 223400, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Gan PL, Huang S and Pan X contributed equally to this work; Gan PL, Zhou X, Lv MH and Tang XW designed the research study; Gan PL, Huang S, Pan X, Xia HF and Zeng XY performed the research; Pan X and Ren WS contributed analytic tools; Gan PL, Huang S and Pan X analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declared that no conflicts of interest or financial ties to disclose.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao-Wei Tang, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 25 Taiping Street, Jiangyang Region, Luzhou 646099, China. solitude5834@hotmail.com
Received: April 14, 2022
Peer-review started: April 14, 2022
First decision: June 10, 2022
Revised: June 17, 2022
Accepted: August 6, 2022
Article in press: August 6, 2022
Published online: September 7, 2022
Processing time: 139 Days and 2.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Liver cirrhosis is the leading cause of liver-related mortality worldwide. It is currently a global health challenge.

AIM

This research intended to explore and analyse research trends and frontiers in this field during the last 10 years, providing new inspiration for clinical decision-making and scientific research.

METHODS

Publications on hepatic cirrhosis research were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection on April 4, 2021. Bibliometric visualisation was conducted through VOSviewer and CiteSpace.

RESULTS

The analytic research was based on original articles and reviews. A total of 7775 records of hepatic cirrhosis published from 2011 to 2020 were retrieved. In the past ten years, the number of related annual publications has increased significantly, especially in the United States and China. All publications were distributed among 109 countries. The United States contributed the most (21.95%) and was consistently the leading driving force, with a solid academic reputation in this area. The University of Barcelona distributed the most related articles (177 articles) and was cited the most frequently. The Journal of Hepatology ranked third in the top 10 journals, which has the highest impact factor (impact factor 2019 = 20.582). Jasmohan S. Bajaj was the most productive author (72 articles). Burst keywords (e.g., sofosbuvir, burden, care, sarcopenia, chronic liver failure, human gut microbiome, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease) and a succession of reference citation bursts have provided clues about research frontiers in recent years.

CONCLUSION

This study identified developing trends in the evolution of liver cirrhosis to provide new inspiration for researchers.

Keywords: Liver cirrhosis; Bibliometric research; Research frontiers; VOSviewer; CiteSpace; Visualization

Core Tip: This research explored and analyzed research trends and frontiers in this field during the last 10 years, further providing new inspiration for scientific research. We found sarcopenia, human gut microbiome, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are of particular interest in studies of cirrhosis. Treatment of diseases that cause cirrhosis, such as hepatitis C, is also a hot topic.