Research Trends of Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis on Acupuncture Therapy: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to explore the hotspots and frontiers of systematic review/meta-analysis on acupuncture therapy according to bibliometric methods.

Methods: Systematic review/meta-analysis articles on acupuncture therapy were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. We used CiteSpace 5.6.R5 to analyze annual publication, categories, countries, institutions, journals, authors, cited references, and keywords through visual maps to explore the research hotspots and trends.

Results: An analysis of 1189 articles in English showed that the total number of publications continually increased in the last 12 years. General medicine was the most used category, and the country and institution ranking highest in this field were China and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, respectively. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine was the most prolific journal, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was the most cited journal. Myeong Soo Lee was the most productive author, and J.P.T. Higgins ranked first in frequency among the cited authors. In the cited references, the top two were Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and the Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA). As for keywords, there were 6 main frontiers including interventions, disease, patient, comparisons, study types, and outcomes. The first disease was pain, while the intervention was electroacupuncture (EA).

Conclusion: The present study examined the research trends in systematic reviews and meta-analysis on acupuncture therapy through bibliometric methods and revealed potential future hotspots of research in this field.

Keywords: CiteSpace; acupuncture; bibliometric analysis; meta-analysis; systematic review.

Figure 1

The annual number of publications on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis between 2008 to 2020.

Figure 2

The cited journal map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis. (The nodes in the map represent journals, and lines between the nodes represent co-citation relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years. The larger the node area, the greater the number of citations. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.).

Figure 3

(A) shows the countries map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent countries. The lines between the nodes represent cooperation relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the area of the node, the larger the number of publications. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.). (B) shows the institutions map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent institutions. The lines between the nodes represent cooperation relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the area of the node, the larger the number of publications. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.).

Figure 4

(A) shows the authors map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent authors, and lines between the nodes represent the collaborative relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the node area, the greater the number of publications.). (B) shows the cited authors map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent cited authors, and lines between the nodes represent co-citation relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years. The larger the node area, the greater the number of citations. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered to be pivotal points in the literature.).

Figure 5

(A) shows the cited references map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent cited references, and lines between the nodes represent co-citation relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the node area, the greater the number of citations. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.). (B) shows the cluster view map of cited references on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The various colors in the clusters represent the different years, and the larger the cluster area, the greater the number of citations. The nodes in the map represent cited references. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.). (C) shows the timeline view map of cited references on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The various colors of timeline and labels represent the different years. The nodes in the map represent cited references, and lines between the nodes represent co-citation relationships. And the larger the node area, the greater the number of citations. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.).

Figure 6

(A) shows the keyword map on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent keywords. The lines between the nodes represent co-occurrence relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the node area, the higher the frequency. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.). (B) shows the burst map of keywords on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The red bars demonstrated that the keyword was cited frequently, the green bars showed that the keyword was cited infrequently.). (C) shows the timezone view map of keywords on acupuncture therapy related systematic review/meta analysis (The nodes in the map represent keywords. The lines between the nodes represent co-occurrence relationships. The various colors in the nodes represent the different years, and the larger the node area, the higher the frequency. The purple ring represents centrality, and nodes with high centrality are considered as pivotal points in the literature.).