A Bibliometric and Mapping Analysis of Glaucoma Research between 1900 and 2019

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the relevance of scientific production on glaucoma using bibliometric tools.

Design: Bibliographic study.

Participants: Original articles published from 1900 through 2019.

Methods: We performed a search in Web of Science for documents published between 1900 and 2019. We used bibliometric indicators to explore documents production, dispersion, distribution, time of duplication, and annual growth, as characterized by Price's law of scientific literature growth, Lotka's law, the transient index, and the Bradford model. We also calculated the participation index of different countries and institutions. Finally, we explored with bibliometric mapping the co-occurrence networks for the most frequently used terms in glaucoma research.

Main outcome measures: Bibliometric indicators for individuals, institutions, and countries.

Results: A total of 33 631 original articles were collected from the timeframe 1900 through 2019. Price's law showed an exponential growth. Scientific production was adjusted better to exponential growth (r = 0.967) than linear growth (r = 0.755). Literature on glaucoma research increased its growth in the last 30 years at a rate of 5.1% per year with a production that doubled its size every 13.9 years. The transience index was 60.08%; this indicates that most of the scientific production is the output of very few authors. Bradford's law showed a high concentration of articles published in a small core of specialized journals. Lotka's law indicated that the distribution of authors is concentrated heavily in small producers. The United States and University of London demonstrated the highest production of original articles. Map network visualization showed the generated term map detailing clusters of closely related terms.

Conclusions: Glaucoma literature has grown exponentially. A very high rate of transience was found that indicates the presence of numerous authors who sporadically publish on this topic. No evidence of a saturation point in the glaucoma literature was observed.

Keywords: Bibliometric indicators; Bibliometric mapping; Collaborative networks; Glaucoma; Scientific production.

Figure 1.

Chronological distribution. Linear adjustment (black): y = 1.5972x – 3153.6 (r = 0.7552). Exponential adjustment (red): y = 1E-50e^0.0606x (r = 0.9676).

Figure 2.

Collaborative network of the most productive author

Figure 3.

More productive countries and institutions in the generation of scientific literature on glaucoma.

Figure 4.

Collaborative network of the most productive institutions

Figure 5.

VOSviewer co-occurrence keywords map.