Bibliometric Analysis of Research Assessing the Use of Acupuncture for Pain Treatment Over the Past 20 Years

The evolving landscape of publishing in the field of pain: An automated bibliometric analysis from 1975 to 2020

BACKGROUND

The aims of this bibliometric analysis were (1) a longitudinal analysis of the publication landscape in the field of pain (1975-2020) and (2) to characterize the overall publication profiles for two selected journals: European Journal of Pain and PAIN® utilizing an automated approach.

METHODS

Database searches in Scopus extracted all journals with 'pain' in their title. For the two specific journals, papers were manually/automatically profiled into preclinical, human and translational studies.

RESULTS

A gross list of 64 journals in the field of pain consisting of both active and ceased journals in Scopus were included in this analysis which identified 62,565 papers with approximately 4000 papers published/year. These papers include 2759 and 9156 papers in Eur. J. Pain and PAIN®, respectively. Currently, there are 24 active 'pain' journals. Authors/paper increase from 2 to 7 indicating a development from mono-disciplinary to multi-disciplinary studies. The overall publication profiles assessing preclinical, human (experimental/clinical) and translational papers in Eur. J. Pain and PAIN® were almost similar (14%, 75% and 10% versus 26%, 63% and 10%). Papers have changed over the years from mono-disciplinary studies (e.g. behavioural studies) to multi-disciplinary studies (e.g. combined behavioural and cell studies). After optimization, the search model matched the manual screening by 100%, 98% and 96% for the preclinical, clinical and healthy volunteer categories.

CONCLUSIONS

Over the last 45 years, more than 60,000 pain-related papers have been published. Papers develop over the years from mono-disciplinary to multi-disciplinary studies. The overall publication profile including preclinical, human (experimental/clinical) and translational papers was almost similar in Eur. J. Pain and PAIN®.

SIGNIFICANCE

The bibliometric analysis of a pain journal provides information on which specific areas of research are published, how this may have changed over the years and how a journal is positioned compared with other journals in the field.

Using the right design controls for acupuncture trials: Methodological rigor and validity in research

Acupuncture treatment can be defined as a medical procedure with an acupuncture needle at acupoints. Establishing suitable control settings is essential, based on the target elements of the acupuncture therapy. In order to properly design a clinical trial or an experiment, a control group must be established. Here, we overview the significance of the control group and its limitations in acupuncture research. Clinical trials have employed a variety of study designs and controls for acupuncture treatment in order to compare the effects of actual treatments with control groups that include no treatment or treatment as usual, sham acupuncture at true acupoints, real acupuncture at non-acupoints, and sham acupuncture at non-acupoints. In order to determine the point-specificity of acupuncture, real acupuncture at non-acupoints should be taken into consideration, whereas sham acupuncture at the same true acupoints should be used to determine the needling-specific effect of acupuncture. It is crucial to choose the optimum control for acupuncture treatments depending on the study's main goal and to interpret the results in accordance with the research design.

Effects and mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia mediated by afferent nerves in acupoint microenvironments

In the past few decades, the use of acupuncture analgesia in clinical practice has increased worldwide. This is due to its various benefits, including natural alleviation of pain without causing various adverse effects associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) and opioids. The acupoint represents the initial site of acupuncture stimulation, where diverse types of nerve fibers located at the acupoint hold significant roles in the generation and transmission of acupuncture-related information. In this study, we analyzed the patterns and mechanisms of acupuncture analgesic mediated by acupoint afferent fibers, and found that acupuncture stimulates acupoints which rapidly and directly induces activation of high-density primary afferent fibers under the acupoints, including myelinated A fibers and unmyelinated C fibers. During acupuncture stimulation at the muscle layer, the analgesic effects can be induced by stimulation of A fiber threshold intensity. At the skin layer, the analgesic effects can only be produced by stimulation of C fiber threshold intensity. Electroacupuncture (EA) activates A fibers, while manual acupuncture (MA) activates both A and C fibers. Furthermore, acupuncture alters acupoint microenvironments, which positively modulates afferent fibers, enhancing the transmission of analgesic signals. In addition to local activation and conduction at acupoints, nerve fibers mediate the transmission of acupuncture information to pain centers. In the spinal cord, acupuncture activates neurons by inducing afferent fiber depolarization, modulating pain gating, inhibiting long-term potentiation (LTP) of the spinal dorsal horn and wide dynamic range (WDR) neuronal activities. At higher nerve centers, acupuncture inhibits neuronal activation in pain-related brain regions. In summary, acupuncture inhibits pain signal transmission at peripheral and central systems by activating different patterns of afferent fibers located on various layers of acupoints. This study provides ideas for enhancing the precise application and clinical translation of acupuncture.

Opportunities and challenges of computer aided diagnosis in new millennium: A bibliometric analysis from 2000 to 2023

BACKGROUND

After entering the new millennium, computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) is rapidly developing as an emerging technology worldwide. Expanding the spectrum of CAD-related diseases is a possible future research trend. Nevertheless, bibliometric studies in this area have not yet been reported. This study aimed to explore the hotspots and frontiers of research on CAD from 2000 to 2023, which may provide a reference for researchers in this field.

METHODS

In this paper, we use bibliometrics to analyze CAD-related literature in the Web of Science database between 2000 and 2023. The scientometric softwares VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to visually analyze the countries, institutions, authors, journals, references and keywords involved in the literature. Keywords burst analysis were utilized to further explore the current state and development trends of research on CAD.

RESULTS

A total of 13,970 publications were included in this study, with a noticeably rising annual publication trend. China and the United States are major contributors to the publication, with the United States being the dominant position in CAD research. The American research institutions, lead by the University of Chicago, are pioneers of CAD. Acharya UR, Zheng B and Chan HP are the most prolific authors. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Transactions on Medical Imaging focuses on CAD and publishes the most articles. New computer technologies related to CAD are in the forefront of attention. Currently, CAD is used extensively in breast diseases, pulmonary diseases and brain diseases.

CONCLUSION

Expanding the spectrum of CAD-related diseases is a possible future research trend. How to overcome the lack of large sample datasets and establish a universally accepted standard for the evaluation of CAD system performance are urgent issues for CAD development and validation. In conclusion, this paper provides valuable information on the current state of CAD research and future developments.

Dose-response relationship between acupuncture time parameters and the effects on chronic non-specific low back pain: a systematic review and Bayesian model-based network meta-analysis protocol

INTRODUCTION

Low back pain (LBP) is a major global public health problem and the majority (nearly 90%) of patients with LBP suffer from non-specific LBP (NSLBP). Acupuncture has been widely used for relieving pain and is recommended as a first-line treatment in LBP guidelines. However, the guidelines do not recommend a specific acupuncture temporal dosage. A Bayesian model-based network meta-analysis (MBNMA) will be conducted to optimise the dosages of time parameters (session, frequency and duration).

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The following databases will be searched from their inception until 1 July 2023: MEDLINE (via PubMed), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), alternative health research database (Alt HealthWatch), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, ClinicalTrials.gov, the WHO's International Clinical Trial and Chinese Clinical Registry. RCTs assessing the effects of acupuncture on chronic NSLBP will be selected. The primary outcome measure will be the improvement in pain intensity at different acupuncture time points. The MBNMA will be performed using R V.4.2.1 with related R packages. Risk of Bias V.2.0 and Confidence in Network Meta-Analysis will be used to assess the evidence quality.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

Ethical approval is not required for literature-based studies. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals or conferences.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

CRD42022336056.

Acupuncture-Neuroimaging Research Trends over Past Two Decades: A Bibliometric Analysis

OBJECTIVE

To identify topics attracting growing research attention as well as frontier trends of acupuncture-neuroimaging research over the past two decades.

METHODS

This paper reviewed data in the published literature on acupuncture neuroimaging from 2000 to 2020, which was retrieved from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace was used to analyze the publication years, countries, institutions, authors, keywords, co-citation of authors, journals, and references.

RESULTS

A total of 981 publications were included in the final review. The number of publications has increased in the recent 20 years accompanied by some fluctuations. Notably, the most productive country was China, while Harvard University ranked first among institutions in this field. The most productive author was Tian J with the highest number of articles (50), whereas the most co-cited author was Hui KKS (325). Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (92) was the most prolific journal, while Neuroimage was the most co-cited journal (538). An article written by Hui KKS (2005) exhibited the highest co-citation number (112). The keywords "acupuncture" (475) and "electroacupuncture" (0.10) had the highest frequency and centrality, respectively. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) ranked first with the highest citation burst (6.76).

CONCLUSION

The most active research topics in the field of acupuncture-neuroimaging over the past two decades included research type, acupoint specificity, neuroimaging methods, brain regions, acupuncture modality, acupoint specificity, diseases and symptoms treated, and research type. Whilst research frontier topics were "nerve regeneration", "functional connectivity", "neural regeneration", "brain network", "fMRI" and "manual acupuncture".

Thirty-year survey of bibliometrics used in the research literature of pain: Analysis, evolution, and pitfalls

During the last decades, the emergence of Bibliometrics and the progress in Pain research have led to a proliferation of bibliometric studies on the medical and scientific literature of pain (B/P). This study charts the evolution of the B/P literature published during the last 30 years. Using various searching techniques, 189 B/P studies published from 1993 to August 2022 were collected for analysis-half were published since 2018. Most of the selected B/P publications use classic bibliometric analysis of Pain in toto, while some focus on specific types of Pain with Headache/Migraine, Low Back Pain, Chronic Pain, and Cancer Pain dominating. Each study is characterized by the origin (geographical, economical, institutional, …) and the medical/scientific context over a specified time span to provide a detailed landscape of the Pain research literature. Some B/P studies have been developed to pinpoint difficulties in appropriately identifying the Pain literature or to highlight some general publishing pitfalls. Having observed that most of the recent B/P studies have integrated newly emergent software visualization tools (SVTs), we found an increase of anomalies and suggest that readers exercise caution when interpreting results in the B/P literature details.

Research trends of acupuncture therapy for hypertension over the past two decades: a bibliometric analysis

Acupuncture has already been extensively utilized to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) in several nations. Nevertheless, the bibliometric research on the worldwide usage of acupuncture for hypertension is mostly unclear. As a result, our objective for the research aimed to investigate the present state as well as developments in the global usage of acupuncture on hypertension during the last 20 years using CiteSpace (5.8.R2). The Web of Science (WOS) database examined papers on acupuncture treatment of hypertension from 2002 to 2021. We examined the number of publications, cited journals, nations/regions, organizations, authors, cited authors, cited references, and keywords utilizing CiteSpace. The record of 296 documents was obtained between 2002 and 2021. The quantity and frequency of annual publications rose gradually. Regarding frequency and centrality of citations, Circulation and Clin Exp Hypertens (Clinical and Experimental Hypertension) scored top and second respectively. China had the most publications among countries/regions, as well as the five largest institutions were also in China. Cunzhi Liu was the most productive author, while P Li was the most referenced author. XF Zhao produced the first article inside the quantity of cited references classification. 'Electroacupuncture' had a significant frequency with centrality for the keywords, which suggested electroacupuncture is a popular treatment in this field. In the treatment of hypertension, electroacupuncture has a beneficial effect on reducing blood pressure. However, because of the many different applications of electroacupuncture frequencies in research, whether the electroacupuncture frequency is connected to the therapeutic impact should be given more significant consideration. The findings of this bibliometric analysis give an overview of the present state as well as developments of clinical studies on acupuncture for hypertensive patients during the last two decades, which could assist researchers in identifying hot subjects and exploring novel directions in further study within the field.

Comparative effectiveness of external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine and surgical treatments in pain management of postherpetic neuralgia: A protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

As the most common long-term complication of herpes zoster (HZ), postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is characterized by chronic, persistent, and debilitating neuropathic pain. PHN seriously harms human health and currently becomes a topic of clinical importance. To date, the common methods of pain management in PHN include external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine and surgical treatments. However, there is no high-quality or direct evidence of their comparative effectiveness. This review aims to provide a network meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine and surgical treatments in the pain management of PHN.

METHODS

Databases such as PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biology Medicine Disc will be searched for relevant randomized controlled trials to obtain literatures on the treatment of PHN with external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine and surgical treatments, and clinical randomized controlled trials will be screened out from their inception to August 5, 2022. The participant intervention comparator outcomes of this study are as flowing: P, patients with PHN; I, external therapies of traditional Chinese medicine and surgical treatments; C, no treatment, pharmacological placebo, treatment as usual or sham acupuncture groups; O, primary outcome is pain intensity, and secondary outcomes are onset of pain relief time, quality of life, therapeutic effective rate and reverse effects. Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool will be used in assessing literature's quality. Network meta-analyses will be conducted to generate estimates of comparative effectiveness of each intervention class and rankings of their effectiveness, in terms of pain management.

RESULT

This systematic review and network meta-analysis will provide evidence of the efficacy of different therapeutic methods for pain management in PHN, to show which forms of therapy are more commonly used with higher effectiveness.

DISCUSSION

The results will systematically provide suggestions for medical practitioners to choose effective, time-saving and economical pain management method for PHN.

The evolution of e-government research over two decades: applying bibliometrics and science mapping analysis

Purpose

This study uses a bibliometric approach to analyze the overall status of e-government research by revealing patterns and trends that would help gain a broad understanding of global developments in the field and future directions.

Design/methodology/approach

All documents related to e-government published from 2000 to 2019 were extracted from the Scopus and the Digital Government Reference Library databases. Bibexcel, Biblioshiny, and VOSviewer were used to perform the analyses and visualize the science mapping.

Findings

The results showed that 21,320 documents related to e-government research were published and cited 263,179 times. The annual growth rate of e-government research has reached 21.50%. The regression analysis showed that the growth rate is expected to increase gradually over the coming years. Despite the significant role that conference papers play in the e-government literature, the impact of articles far exceeds conference papers. The University of Albany (SUNY) has played an important role in e-government research in terms of production and impact. Furthermore, the study revealed some countries that are expected to play a prominent role in e-government research, as well as several topics that may attract more attention soon.

Originality/value

The results presented in this study and the comprehensive picture obtained about the e-government field make it an effective supplement to the expert evaluation. Thus, researchers, research managers, policymakers, institutions, funding agencies, and governments can rely on it.

Scientometric assessment of scientific documents published in 2020 on herbal medicines used for COVID-19

Objective

Many studies have suggested herbal medicines as alternatives or adjuvants to modern drugs for COVID-19. Their scientometric analyses can provide a scientific overview of this topic.

Materials and methods

Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus were searched for articles on the use of herbal medicines in COVID-19 published until 26 October 2020. Collected data were analyzed for document type, subject area, top journal, citation number, and authors' collaboration network using VOSviewer 1.6.15, ScientoPy 2.0.3, Gephi 0.9.2, and SPSS 15 statistical tools.

Results

After screening the 3185 retrieved records, 378 and 849 records, respectively from WOS and Scopus, remained for quantity analysis. Original and review articles were the two main types of papers in both databases. Top subject areas were drug and medicine, respectively in the WOS and Scopus databases. The top three productive countries in the field were China, the US, and India. The most cited article was a practice guideline in both databases. "Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics" in WOS and "Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs" in Scopus were the top journals. Top keywords included "COVID-19″ and "Traditional Chinese Medicine". US authors had the highest collaboration with other authors.

Conclusions

The current study provides a snapshot of the quantity and characteristics of published scholarly documents in recent months in the intersection of herbal medicines and COVID-19. Our findings help scientists to find the existing gaps, identify the active authors and scientific institutes to collaborate with and use their experience to produce new knowledge in the future.

Discovering Influential Core-Keywords, Researcher Networks and Research Trends of Acupuncture on Depression Using Bibliometric Analysis

Depression is a common illness worldwide. Acupuncture is used as an alternative to non-pharmacological therapy. This study aimed to identify the development and global trends in the study of acupuncture therapy for depression over the past two decades using a bibliometric analysis. Articles published between 2001 and 2020 on acupuncture for depression were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Extracted information included authors, organizations, countries, keywords, and journals. The VOSviewer program was used to visualize the impacts and network hubs of the keywords, authors, and affiliations. Analyses of 871 original and review articles revealed that the number of publications has continually increased over the past 20 years. China has published the maximum number of articles, followed by the United States and South Korea. As for research areas, integrative complementary medicine was most well represented in terms of the number of articles. Co-occurrence analysis of keywords indicated that each five sub-group cluster (including "pain related to depressive symptoms," "CAM therapies of depression," "comorbid disease or symptoms of depression," "clinical trials of depression," and "mechanism of acupuncture on depression") has its own impact keyword. The most recent keywords were "protocol" and "systematic review," whereas early keywords were "acupuncture analgesia" and "St john's wort." Co-authorship analysis of authors and organizations revealed 4 influential authors and 2 organizations in the field of acupuncture for depression. The present study provided influential keywords that show comorbid symptoms, treatments, and mechanism. Additionally, it revealed the influential persons or groups related to acupuncture therapy for depression.

Developmental Trends and Research Hotspots in Bronchoscopy Anesthesia: A Bibliometric Study

Background

This study discusses the developmental trends and research hotspots in bronchoscopy anesthesia in the past six decades.

Methods

The original and review articles published from 1975 to June 2021 related to bronchoscopy anesthesia were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). Three different scientometric tools (CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix) were used for this comprehensive analysis.

Results

There was a substantial increase in the research on bronchoscopy anesthesia in recent years. A total of 1,270 publications were retrieved up to June 25, 2021. Original research articles were 1,152, and reviews were 118, including 182 randomized controlled trials (RCTs). These publications were cited a total of 25,504 times, with a mean of 20.08 citations per publication. The US had the largest number of publications (27.6%) and the highest H-index of 44. The sum of publications from China ranked second (11.5%), with an H-index of 17. Keyword co-occurrence and references co-citation visual analysis showed that the use of sedatives such as dexmedetomidine in the process of bronchoscopy diagnosis and treatment was gradually increasing, indicating that bronchoscopy anesthesia was further progressing toward safety and comfort.

Conclusion

Based on a bibliometric analysis of the publications over the past decades, a comprehensive analysis indicated that the research of bronchoscopy anesthesia is in a period of rapid development and demonstrated the improvement of medical instruments and surgical options that have significantly contributed to the field of bronchoscopy anesthesia. The data would provide future directions for clinicians and researchers in relation to bronchoscopy anesthesia.

A bibliometric analysis of research on herbal medicine for obesity over the past 20 years

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to analyze published papers on the use of herbal medicine in obesity research over the past 20 years using bibliometric methods and present an overview of global research trends.

METHODS

English articles on herbal medicine for obesity published from 2001 to 2020 were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database using the search terms "herbal" AND "obesity". Microsoft Office Excel was used to sort and analyze the statistical data. Bibliographic analysis and data visualization were performed using visualization of similarities viewer based on publication year, country of publication, journal, research area, author, affiliated institution, and keywords.

RESULTS

A total of 463 English articles were retrieved, and we observed a trend in which the number of publications on herbal medicine for obesity has gradually increased over the past 20 years. The most productive countries and research organizations in this field were Korea and Kyunghee University, respectively. Many papers have been published in research areas, such as pharmacology pharmacy and integrative complementary medicine, and the journals with the most published articles in this field were Journal of Ethnopharmacology and Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The main research keywords formed 3 clusters, and keywords with the most occurrences were "obesity," "adipose-tissue," and "insulin resistance."

CONCLUSION

This study presents an overview of the global research trend of herbal medicine for obesity from the bibliographic analysis. An increased understanding of the recently changing research topics provides a new perspective on future research directions. This study may help guide the research in the field of obesity in the future.

Diachronic analysis of major acupoints used in ancient and current acupuncture treatments

Background

Over time, a large body of knowledge on acupoint selection patterns has accumulated. This study compared the main acupoint selection patterns between ancient and current acupuncture treatments.

Methods

Data on the 10 most frequently used acupoints were obtained from a current medical database, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the ancient medical text Donguibogam. Network analysis was used to identify the most commonly used major points across various diseases.

Results

The most commonly used acupoints in both ancient and current acupuncture were ST36, SP6, LR3, LI4, and GV20. Acupoints CV3, CV4, CV6, CV8, and CV12 were more widely used in ancient acupuncture, while in current acupuncture, HT7, PC6, KI3, GB34, and EX-HN3 were more prevalent.

Conclusions

Ancient and current acupuncture practice had similar and distinct acupoint selection patterns. Diachronic analysis sheds light on how patterns of acupoint selection have changed.

Effective Oriental Magic for Analgesia: Acupuncture

Pain is a kind of complex physiological and psychological symptom, which makes the person debilitated and uncomfortable. Some persistent pain is unbearable for the patients, reducing the quality of life and bringing considerable pressure to the individuals and society. Pain killers seem to be effective in analgesia for patients, but their safety and addiction are crucial issues. From the theory of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the blocked meridian is the main cause of pain, and effective acupuncture can play a positive analgesic effect. Acupuncture that can date back thousands of years is one of the ancient medical practices in China. Its safety and effectiveness are respected. Based on its superior safety and inferior side effects, it has been gradually recognized as a therapeutic intervention method for complementary medicine, which is also generally used to treat multiple pain diseases. It is shown by modern medical studies that neurotransmitters are the material basis for the acupuncture effect, and the effect of acupuncture analgesia is related to changes in neurotransmitters. However, the specific mechanism has not been elucidated. This review aims to comprehensively discuss the historical evolution of acupuncture analgesia, clinical research of acupuncture analgesia, comparison of acupuncture and drug therapy, the neurotransmitter mechanism of acupuncture analgesia, the effect of acupuncture manipulation on analgesia, and bibliometric analysis of acupuncture treatment for pain, to explore the superiority and related mechanism of acupuncture analgesia from different aspects, and to provide a more effective treatment for alleviating patients' pain.

Evolutionary Overview of Land Consolidation Based on Bibliometric Analysis in Web of Science from 2000 to 2020

Land consolidation is widely used as a powerful tool for land use management in many countries. In order to objectively reveal the current research status in the field of land consolidation, this paper uses the Bibliometrix and Biblioshiny software packages, and VOSviewer to analyze the literature in the field of land consolidation in the last 20 years of the Web of Science Core Collection Database. The results show that: (1) In the past two decades, the annual publication of papers on land consolidation rose. It can be divided into three stages: 2000–2007 for the embryonic period, 2008–2012 for the long-term, and 2013–2020 for the high-yield period. (2) Land consolidation studies covered 68 countries or regions. The top three countries were China, Poland, and the United States. China and the United States played an important role in international cooperation in the field of land consolidation, and Turkey mainly conducted independent research in the field of land consolidation. (3) Land consolidation, reclamation, China, remote sensing, and land fragmentation were the high-frequency keywords in the field of land consolidation in recent years. (4) The research focusing on the field of land consolidation involved its development course, its impact on ecosystem services, and the evaluation of its benefits. (5) The theme of land consolidation studies was shunted and evolved over time, and nine evolution paths could be summarized in the studies of cultivated land fragmentation, development course of land consolidation, and impacts of land consolidation on soil. Finally, this paper predicted the future research directions of land consolidation: exploring new methods for evaluating the benefits of land consolidation, the scale effects of the impact of land consolidation on ecosystem services, research on the mechanism and comprehensive effects of land consolidation on soil, research on land consolidation and rural revitalization, and land consolidation theory research.

Bibliometric and Visualized Analysis of Tissue Engineering for Cartilage Repair and Regeneration Over the Past Decade

Background

Tremendous progress has been made in the field of cartilage repair and regeneration, particularly with tissue-engineering approaches. This study aims to estimate the global status and current trends in the field of cartilage tissue engineering.

Methods

Publications from 2011 to 2020 on tissue engineering for cartilage repair and regeneration were retrieved from Web of Science Core Collection database. The source data were statistically evaluated based on the bibliometrics. In terms of visualized analysis, some bibliometric indicators such as bibliographic coupling, co-citation, co-authorship and co-occurrence analysis were performed by VOSviewer software, to investigate the research trends in tissue engineering for cartilage repair and regeneration.

Results

In total, 3715 papers were included. Since 2011, the amount of issued papers and relative research interest (RRI) have grown by leaps and bounds globally. The United States was the biggest contributor to the research in this field, due to the greatest citation frequency, the highest H index and the strongest total link strength. Romania had the highest average citation for each. The journal Tissue Engineering Part A published most articles in this field. For institutions, the largest contributors were Shanghai Jiaotong University, University of California System and Sichuan University. Studies could all be grouped into four main clusters: study of biomaterial scaffolds, study of seeding cells and growth factors, experimental animal model and clinical study, and mechanism research.

Conclusion

Great efforts should be put into the study of biomaterial scaffolds, seeding cells and growth factors, considered to be the next hot topics in cartilage tissue engineering. This findings provide collaborative insights and research orientation for academic researchers, surgeons and healthcare practitioners to a certain extent.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s43465-021-00569-1.

Worldwide Tinnitus Research: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Published Literature Between 2001 and 2020

Background

In recent years, tinnitus has attracted increasing research interest. However, bibliometric analysis of global research on tinnitus is rare. The objective of this study was to identify and describe the foci and developing trends of tinnitus research using a bibliometric approach.

Methods

Publications related to tinnitus published from 2001 to 2020 were searched for in the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases in the Web of Science Core Collection of Clarivate Analytics. The bibliometric approach was used to estimate the searched data, and VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were used to identify and analyze research foci and trends in the field of tinnitus.

Results

A total of 5,748 articles were included. The number of publications on tinnitus has increased dramatically in the last 20 years, especially since 2010. The leading country in terms of publications and access to collaborative networks was the United States. High-frequency keywords included tinnitus, hearing loss, prevalence, management, depression, mechanism, vertigo, hearing, inferior colliculus, and noise. The analyses of keyword burst detection indicated that prevalence, anxiety, and neural network are emerging research hotspots.

Conclusion

In the past 20 years, academic understanding of tinnitus has improved considerably. This study provides an objective, systematic, and comprehensive analysis of tinnitus-related literature. Furthermore, current hot spots and prospective trends in the field of tinnitus were identified. These results will assist otolaryngologists and audiologists in identifying the evolving dynamics of tinnitus research and highlight areas for prospective research.

Synthesis, Characterization and Biomedical Application of Silver Nanoparticles

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been employed in various fields of biotechnology due to their proven properties as an antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal agent. AgNPs are generally synthesized through chemical, physical and biological approaches involving a myriad of methods. As each approach confers unique advantages and challenges, a trends analysis of literature for the AgNPs synthesis using different types of synthesis were also reviewed through a bibliometric approach. A sum of 10,278 publications were analyzed on the annual numbers of publication relating to AgNPs and biological, chemical or physical synthesis from 2010 to 2020 using Microsoft Excel applied to the Scopus publication database. Furthermore, another bibliometric clustering and mapping software were used to study the occurrences of author keywords on the biomedical applications of biosynthesized AgNPs and a total collection of 224 documents were found, sourced from articles, reviews, book chapters, conference papers and reviews. AgNPs provides an excellent, dependable, and effective solution for seven major concerns: as antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer, bone healing, bone cement, dental applications and wound healing. In recent years, AgNPs have been employed in biomedical sector due to their antibacterial, antiviral and anticancer properties. This review discussed on the types of synthesis, how AgNPs are characterized and their applications in biomedical field.

Knowledge Mapping Analysis of International Research on Acupuncture for Low Back Pain Using Bibliometrics

Objective

Acupuncture has made recommendations to relieve low back pain (LBP) in a few guidelines. However, few articles focused on the papers published before, which may reflect the trend of study, main researchers, reciprocal collaboration, and other information in this field. In this study, we utilize the bibliometric analysis methods to objectively analyze the current trend and research hotspots about this field, aiming to provide a foundation and reference for future study.

Methods

The Web of Science database was searched for publications related to acupuncture therapy for treating low back pain between 1985 and 2021. VOSviewer and CiteSpace were used to analyze the annual publication, authors and co-cited authors and their countries (regions) and institutions, journals and co-cited journals, co-cited references, co-occurrence keywords, burst keywords, and the relevant centrality.

Results

A total of 1279 papers were retrieved from the database, and the trend of annual publications maintained growth. Article was the most document type (867). The USA (451) and the Kyung Hee University (49) were the most productive country (region) and institution, respectively, while the USA (0.37) and University of Maryland (0.13) had the highest centrality. MacPherson, Hugh and Sherman, Karen J. published the most papers in this field (32), and Ernst, Edzard became the most influential author (474 co-citations). Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine was the most productive journal (79), whereas SPINE was the most influential one (3111 co-citations). Haake's (2007) article had the most co-citation count (186), while Furlan's (2005) article had the highest centrality (0.23). The three frontier topics were pain management, disease, and protocol.

Conclusion

The present study investigated publications on acupuncture for treating low back pain using bibliometric analysis methods, which may help researchers explore the potential directions for the future.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Atopic Dermatitis Research over the Past Three Decades and Future Perspectives

Atopic dermatitis (AD) has been increasing in prevalence over the past few decades; however, AD has never been analyzed using a bibliometric approach. We searched for AD studies in the dermatology and allergy category of the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases using the keywords "atopic dermatitis", "eczema", and "atopy". In total, 53,460 documents were retrieved. We analyzed annual publication trends and performed keyword and co-authorship network analyses. The annual number of AD publications has increased over the years. Asthma, food allergies, the skin barrier, IgE, and epidemiology have received extensive attention. The keywords 'allergic rhinitis', 'child(ren)', 'quality of life', and 'probiotics' have become more commonly used in recent years. AD research has been led by only a few countries, such as the USA, Germany, and the UK, and longstanding research topics such as asthma, allergy, and the immune system continue to be important. We suggest that global collaborations, research in developing countries, and research that is more holistic (thus exploring how genes, the immune system, the environment, and the microbiome together impact AD) are necessary.

Special Issue: State of the Art in Research on Acupuncture Treatment

Acupuncture is a medical treatment that involves inserting a needle into the body [...].

Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends on Acupuncture for Neck Pain Treatment Over the Past 20 Years

A bibliometric approach using network analytical methods was applied to explore the research trends on acupuncture for neck pain treatment. Publications related to acupuncture for neck pain treatment from 2000 to 2020 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. The extracted records were analyzed in terms of publication year, research area, journal title, country, organization, authors, and keywords. The research trends on acupuncture for neck pain treatment were visualized using the VOSviewer program. Analyses of 325 articles revealed that the total number of publications has continually increased over the last 20 years. The most represented research area was integrative complementary medicine. The country producing the most articles was the US, followed by China, England, and the Republic of Korea. By assessing the total link strength of organizations and authors, we identified influential organizations and authors who have contributed to research on acupuncture for neck pain treatment. A network analysis based on the cooccurrence of keywords revealed the following two major study designs: clinical study and research methodology. This study examined the research trends on acupuncture for neck pain treatment using bibliometric methods. Our findings provide useful guidelines for researchers in searching for relevant topics.

Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Cancer Over the Past Two Decades: A Bibliometric Analysis

Purpose:

Acupuncture has been used for managing cancer-related symptoms. However, there are still few studies concerning the overall trends in acupuncture therapy on cancer based on bibliometric analysis. This study aims to demonstrate the current status and trends in this field over the past 2 decades.

Methods:

Articles were retrieved from the Web of Science from 2000 to 2019. CiteSpace was used for co-authorship network of countries/institutions, dual-map analysis, and detecting the keywords with citation bursts. VOSviewer was used to construct networks based on co-authorship and co-citation analysis of authors, and co-occurrence of keywords.

Results:

A total of 927 articles and reviews were included in the final analysis. The number of publications has steadily increased with some fluctuations among years. The country and institution contributing most to this field are the USA and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Mao JJ was the most productive author and Molassiotis A ranked first in the cited authors. The co-occurrence analysis revealed 5 clusters (including “clinical trials,” “clinical studies on chemotherapy/radiation-induced symptoms,” “CAM therapy for cancer,” “clinical studies on vasomotor symptoms,” and “systematic reviews”). Most recent keyword bursts were “neuropathic pain,” “arthralgia,” “prevention,” “supportive care,” and “integrative medicine”.

Conclusions:

The annual publication output would increase rapidly in the next decade, which shows a promising future in this research field. Future research hotspots would focus on the role of acupuncture in neuropathic pain, arthralgia, prevention, supportive care, and integrative medicine.

Bibliometric and Altmetric Analyses of Publication Activity in the Field of Behcet's Disease in 2010-2019

BACKGROUND

Behcet's disease (BD) is a systemic vasculitis accompanied by oral-genital ulcers, ocular, cerebral, and gastrointestinal disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate BD articles published between 2010-2019 bibliometrically and to provide up-to-date data. A secondary aim was to present a different perspective using altmetric assessments.

METHODS

This bibliometric and altmetric research was performed with data obtained from the Web of Science database. The key terms "Behcet's disease," "Behcet's syndrome," and "Behcet" were used for listing the articles. The number of articles, citation data, and active countries were determined. Trend and correlation analyses were performed. Altmetric attention scores (AASs) and Mendeley readers count (MRC) of the articles were acquired for the altmetric evaluations.

RESULTS

A total of 5,201 articles were listed. After the exclusion criteria, a total of 2,163 articles were obtained for further analysis. A significant and increasing trend was detected in the number of articles from 2010 to 2019 (P < 0.001). Turkey (28.24%), China (9.57%), South Korea (9.20%), Japan (6.38%), and Italy (5.64%) were the five most productive countries. France, the United States and, the United Kingdom were the top three countries in respect of the average number of citations per article. A weak significant correlation was detected between the number of citations and AAS (P < 0.001). The number of citations was significantly and strongly correlated with the MRC (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

An increasing trend was found in BD research productivity. Although the Silk Road countries were prominent in the number of articles, a similar ranking was not valid for the average number of citations per article.

Insight into the characteristics of research published in traditional, complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine journals: a bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

Traditional, complementary, alternative and integrative medicine (TCAIM) can be described as diverse medical and healthcare interventions, practices, products, or disciplines that are not considered as part of conventional medicine. Inherent in its definition, TCAIMs are comprised of a wide variety of therapies with highly variable safety and effectiveness evidence profiles. Despite this, the use of many TCAIMs is highly prevalent among patients globally. The present study consists of a bibliometric analysis of TCAIM journals.

METHODS

A single search of all International Standard Serial Number (ISSNs) of all journals categorized as "complementary and alternative medicine" (code 2707) based on the All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) was run on Scopus on April 17, 2021. All publication types were included; no further search limits were applied. The following bibliometric data were collected: number of publications (in total and per year), authors and journals; open access status; journals publishing the highest volume of literature and their impact factors; language, countries, institutional affiliations, and funding sponsors of publications; most productive authors; and highest-cited publications. Trends associated with this subset of publications were identified and presented. Bibliometric indicators of production were calculated, and bibliometric networks were constructed and visualized using the software tool VOSviewer.

RESULTS

A total of 172,466 publications (42,331 open access), were published by 219,680 authors in 143 journals from 1938 to 2021. Since the 1940s, an upward trend with respect to the volume of publications can be observed, with a steep increase observed between the mid-2000s and mid-2010s. The journal that published the largest number of publications was the Journal of Natural Products (n = 15,144). The most productive countries included China (n = 45,860), the United States (n = 29,523), and Germany (n = 10,120); a number of the most common institutional affiliations and funding sponsors also originated from these three countries.

CONCLUSIONS

The number of publications collectively published in TCAIM journals follows an upward trend. Given a high prevalence of TCAIM use among patients, increased acceptance of TCAIM among conventional healthcare providers, and growing interest in the research of TCAIM, future work should continue to investigate and track changes in the publication characteristics of the emerging research on this topic.

Bibliometric Analysis of Hydrocarbon Bioremediation in Cold Regions and a Review on Enhanced Soil Bioremediation

Simple Summary

Anthropogenic activities in cold regions require petroleum oils to support various purposes. With the increased demand of petroleum, accidental oil spills are generated during transportation or refuelling processes. Soil is one of the major victims in petroleum pollution, hence studies have been devoted to find solutions to remove these petroleum hydrocarbons. However, the remote and low-temperature conditions in cold regions hindered the implementation of physical and chemical removal treatments. On the other hand, biological treatments in general have been proposed as an innovative approach to attenuate these hydrocarbon pollutants in soils. To understand the relevancy of biological treatments for cold regions specifically, bibliometric analysis has been applied to systematically analyse studies focused on hydrocarbon removal treatment in a biological way. To expedite the understanding of this analysis, we have summarised these biological treatments and suggested other biological applications in the context of cold conditions.

Abstract

The increased usage of petroleum oils in cold regions has led to widespread oil pollutants in soils. The harsh environmental conditions in cold environments allow the persistence of these oil pollutants in soils for more than 20 years, raising adverse threats to the ecosystem. Microbial bioremediation was proposed and employed as a cost-effective tool to remediate petroleum hydrocarbons present in soils without significantly posing harmful side effects. However, the conventional hydrocarbon bioremediation requires a longer time to achieve the clean-up standard due to various environmental factors in cold regions. Recent biotechnological improvements using biostimulation and/or bioaugmentation strategies are reported and implemented to enhance the hydrocarbon removal efficiency under cold conditions. Thus, this review focuses on the enhanced bioremediation for hydrocarbon-polluted soils in cold regions, highlighting in situ and ex situ approaches and few potential enhancements via the exploitation of molecular and microbial technology in response to the cold condition. The bibliometric analysis of the hydrocarbon bioremediation research in cold regions is also presented.

Ankylosing spondylitis rehabilitation publications and the global productivity: a Web of Science-based bibliometric analysis (2000-2019)

Rehabilitation programs have an important place in the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), but there is no comprehensive bibliometric research that assesses publications on AS rehabilitation in a holistic way. The aim of this study was to investigate the quantity and quality of articles related to AS rehabilitation and to reveal the features of global productivity in this topic. This bibliometric study was conducted utilizing the Web of Science (WoS) database with the keywords 'ankylosing spondylitis rehabilitation', 'ankylosing spondylitis exercise', 'ankylosing spondylitis physical therapy' and 'ankylosing spondylitis physiotherapy'. The number of articles, citations, and main active countries were determined and trend analyses were performed. A total of 792 articles were reviewed. The articles originated from 51 different countries, 22 of which met the main active country criteria. A significant increase trend was detected in the number of articles between 2000 and 2019 (p < 0.001). The five most productive countries were Germany (n = 111; 14.02%), Turkey (n = 98; 12.37%), the United States (n = 71; 8.96%), the United Kingdom (n = 53; 6.69%) and the Netherlands (n = 53; 6.69%). The highest values in number of articles per million population were calculated in Norway, the Netherlands and Austria, respectively. In the analysis according to GDP, Norway, the Netherlands and Turkey were ranked as the first three. The top three countries for the average citation count were France, Netherlands and Germany. This bibliometric study can be considered as an assessment and summary of worldwide scientific production on AS rehabilitation. The data demonstrate an increasing trend in research productivity since 2000. European countries were seen to be at the forefront both quantitatively and qualitatively in this area.

Oil Bioremediation in the Marine Environment of Antarctica: A Review and Bibliometric Keyword Cluster Analysis

Bioremediation of hydrocarbons has received much attention in recent decades, particularly relating to fuel and other oils. While of great relevance globally, there has recently been increasing interest in hydrocarbon bioremediation in the marine environments of Antarctica. To provide an objective assessment of the research interest in this field we used VOSviewer software to analyze publication data obtained from the ScienceDirect database covering the period 1970 to the present, but with a primary focus on the years 2000–2020. A bibliometric analysis of the database allowed identification of the co-occurrence of keywords. There was an increasing trend over time for publications relating to oil bioremediation in maritime Antarctica, including both studies on marine bioremediation and of the metabolic pathways of hydrocarbon degradation. Studies of marine anaerobic degradation remain under-represented compared to those of aerobic degradation. Emerging keywords in recent years included bioprospecting, metagenomic, bioindicator, and giving insight into changing research foci, such as increasing attention to microbial diversity. The study of microbial genomes using metagenomic approaches or whole genome studies is increasing rapidly and is likely to drive emerging fields in future, including rapid expansion of bioprospecting in diverse fields of biotechnology.

Effect of Electroacupuncture on Pain Perception and Pain-Related Affection: Dissociation or Interaction Based on the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and S1

Electroacupuncture (EA) can effectively modulate pain perception and pain-related negative affect; however, we do not know whether the effect of EA on sensation and affect is parallel, or dissociated, interactional. In this study, we observed the effects of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) lesion and the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) activation on pain perception, pain-related affection, and neural oscillation in S1. ACC lesions did not affect pain perception but relieved pain-paired aversion. S1 activation increased pain perception and anxious behavior. EA can mitigate pain perception regardless of whether there is an ACC lesion. Chronic pain may increase the delta and theta band oscillatory activity in the S1 brain region and decrease the oscillatory activity in the alpha, beta, and gamma bands. EA intervention may inhibit the oscillatory activity of the alpha and beta bands. These results suggest that EA may mitigate chronic pain by relieving pain perception and reducing pain-related affection through different mechanisms. This evidence builds upon findings from previous studies of chronic pain and EA treatment.

Bibliometric analysis of researches on traditional Chinese medicine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused a worldwide pandemic, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has played an important role in response. We aimed to analyze the published literature on TCM for COVID-19, and provide reference for later research.

Methods

This study searched the CBM, CNKI, PubMed, and EMBASE from its establishment to March 11, 2020. VOSviewer 1.6.11 and gCLUTO 2.0 software were used to visually analyze the included studies.

Results

A total of 309 studies were included, including 61 journals, 1441 authors, 277 institutions, and 27 provinces. Research collaborations among regions were among those close in geographical distance. The collaborations of institutions and authors were more likely to be restricted to the same region. Among the authors with frequency greater than two (65 authors), only 19 authors had connection with others. More than 70% (358/491) of keywords were only presented once, and 20 keywords were shown more than 10 times. Five research topics were identified: Data mining method based analysis on the medication law of Chinese medicine in prevention and management of COVID-19; exploration of active compounds of Chinese medicine for COVID-19 treatment based on network pharmacology and molecular docking; expert consensus and interpretation of COVID-19 treatment; research on the etiology and pathogenesis of COVID-19; and clinical research of TCM for COVID-19 treatment.

Conclusion

The research hotspots were scattered, and the collaboration between authors and institutions needed to be further strengthened. To improve the quality and efficiency of research output, the integration of scientific research and resources, as well as scientific collaboration are needed.

Bibliometric Analysis of Moxibustion Research Trends over the Past 20 Years

Objectives: A bibliometric approach using network analysis was applied to identify the development and research trends for moxibustion. This study also examined the network hub of moxibustion research by investigating the collaborative work of organizations and authors. Methods: Academic articles on moxibustion research published from 2000 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Extracted records were analyzed according to publication year, research area, journal title, country, organization, and authors. The VOSviewer program was utilized to visualize the trends in moxibustion research and to explore the influential organizations and authors. Results: Analyses of 1146 original and review articles written in English demonstrated that the number of publications related to moxibustion research has increased consistently over the last 20 years. China issued the most articles in this field, and the most represented research area was integrative complementary medicine. A network analysis based on the co-occurrence and publication year of keywords identified the relevant characteristics and trends of moxibustion research. By assessing the total link strength of organizations and authors, influential organizations and authors who have contributed to moxibustion research were identified. Conclusions: The current study examined research on moxibustion using bibliometric analysis and identified a time-based development of moxibustion research and a global network hub of moxibustion research.