Trends in erectile dysfunction research from 2008 to 2018: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Insufficient penile erection to facilitate vaginal penetration is a medical condition referred to as erectile dysfunction (ED). By the year 2025, the number of ED cases across the world is expected to reach 322 million. There are numerous publications and studies in the field of ED over the past decades. Our aim is to comprehensively analyze the global scientific outputs of ED research and show the trends and hotspots in ED research. Data of publications were downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection. We used CiteSpace IV and Excel 2016 to analyze literature information, including journals, countries/regions, institutes, authors, citation reports, and research frontiers. Until October 26, 2018, a total of 8880 papers in ED research were identified as published between 2008 and 2018. Journal of Sexual Medicine published the most articles. The United States contributed the most publications and occupied leading positions in H-index value and the number of ESI top papers. Maggi M owned the highest co-citations. The keyword "Oxidative stress" ranked first in the research front-line. The amount of articles published in ED research has been stable from 2008 to 2018. The United States showed enormous progress in ED research, and is still the dominant country. Oxidative stress, vardenafil, and late-onset hypogonadism were the latest research frontiers and should be paid more attention.

Fig. 1

Publication outputs. The annual number of publication in erectile dysfunction research from 2008 to 2018

Fig. 2

The dual-map overlay of journals related to erectile dysfunction research. There were four citation paths. The top yellow path, papers published in molecular/biology/immunology journals mostly cited journals in molecular/biology/genetics area; the middle green path, papers published in molecular/biology/immunology journals partially cited journals in health/nursing/medicine area; the middle green path, papers published in medicine/medical/clinical journals partially cited journals in molecular/biology/genetics area; the bottom green path, articles published in medicine/medical/clinical journals partially cited journals in health/nursing/medicine area

Fig. 3

The distribution of countries and institutes. a The network map of countries/regions that in the case of erectile dysfunction (ED) research. b The network map of institutes involved in erectile dysfunction research

Fig. 4

The distribution of highly cited, H-index, and average citations in the top ten countries

Fig. 5

The distribution of authors. a The network map of active authors offered to erectile dysfunction research. b The network map of co-cited authors offered to erectile dysfunction research

Fig. 6

The analysis of references. a The co-citation map of references from publications in erectile dysfunction (ED) research. b The timeline view of co-cited references from publications in ED research. c The burst words map of references from publications in ED research. d The timeline view of burst words from publications in ED research

Fig. 7

The keywords with strong citation bursts in articles related to erectile dysfunction research published from 2008 to 2018