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Review
. 2022 May 20;15(1):39.
doi: 10.1186/s13047-022-00549-0.

A bibliometric analysis of published research employing musculoskeletal imaging modalities to evaluate foot osteoarthritis

Prue Molyneux  1   2 , Sarah Stewart  3   4 , Catherine Bowen  5   6 , Richard Ellis  3   4 , Keith Rome  3 , Matthew Carroll  3   4
Affiliations
Review

A bibliometric analysis of published research employing musculoskeletal imaging modalities to evaluate foot osteoarthritis

Prue Molyneux et al. J Foot Ankle Res. .

Abstract

Objectives: Temporal and global changes in research utilising imaging to assess foot osteoarthritis is currently unknown. This study aimed to undertake a bibliometric analysis of published research to: (1) identify the imaging modalities that have been used to evaluate foot osteoarthritis; (2) explore the temporal changes and global differences in the use of these imaging modalities; and (3) to evaluate performance related to publication- and citation-based metrics.

Methods: A literature search was conducted using Scopus to identify studies which had used imaging to assess foot osteoarthritis. Extracted data included publication year, imaging modality, citations, affiliations, and author collaboration networks. Temporal trends in the use of each imaging modality were analysed. Performance analysis and science mapping were used to analyse citations and collaboration networks.

Results: 158 studies were identified between 1980 and 2021. Plain radiography was the most widely used modality, followed by computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound imaging (USI), respectively. The number of published studies increased over time for each imaging modality (all P ≥ 0.018). The most productive country was the United States of America (USA), followed by the United Kingdom and Australia. International authorship collaboration was evident in 57 (36.1%) studies. The average citation rate was 23.4 per study, with an average annual citation rate of 2.1.

Conclusions: Published research employing imaging to assess foot osteoarthritis has increased substantially over the past four decades. Although plain radiography remains the gold standard modality, the emergence of MRI and USI in the past two decades continues to advance knowledge and progress research in this field.

Keywords: Foot osteoarthritis; Imaging modalities.

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Conflict of interest statement

Professor Catherine Bowen and Professor Keith Rome are the Editors in Chief UK of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. It is journal policy that editors are removed from the peer review and editorial decision-making processes for papers they have co-authored. Matthew Carroll and Sarah Stewart are Editorial Board members of the Journal of Foot and Ankle Research. The remaining authors declare no conflicts of interest in relation to this work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Cumulative frequency of studies published per year for each imaging modality. Note: data from studies using more than one imaging modality (n = 24) were counted for each imaging modality used
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of studies associated with the first authors affiliated country for each imaging modality. Note: data from studies using more than one imaging modality (n = 24) were counted for each imaging modality used
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Visual representation of international collaborative authorship networks. Note: Different shades of blue indicate different rates of collaboration between that country with any other country: dark blue = higher collaboration; grey = no collaboration. The red lines indicate countries where there were two or more research collaborations: thicker lines indicate a greater number of collaborations
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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