Global Research Trends in Tendon Stem Cells from 1991 to 2020: A Bibliometric and Visualized Study

Abstract

Background: Tendinopathy is a disabling musculoskeletal disorder affecting the athletics and general populations. There have been increased studies using stem cells in treating tendon diseases. The aim of this bibliometric and visualized study is to comprehensively investigate the current status and global trends of research in tendon stem cells.

Methods: Publications related to tendon stem cells from 1991 to 2020 were retrieved from Web of Science and then indexed using a bibliometric methodology. VOSviewer software was used to conduct the visualized study, including coauthorship, cocitation, and cooccurrence analysis and to analyze the publication trends of research in tendon stem cells.

Results: In total, 2492 articles were included and the number of publications increased annually worldwide. The United States made the largest contribution to this field, with the most publications (938 papers, 37.64%), citation frequency (68,195 times), and the highest H-index (103). The most contributive institutions were University of Pittsburgh (96 papers), Zhejiang University (70 papers), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Chinese University of Hong Kong (both 64 papers). The Journal of Orthopaedic Research published the most relative articles. Studies could be classified into five clusters: "Animal study," "Tissue engineering," "Clinical study," "Mechanism research," and "Stem cells research", which show a balanced development trend.

Conclusion: Publications on tendon stem cells may reached a platform based on current global trends. According to the inherent changes of hotspots in each cluster and the possibilities of cross-research, the research in tendon stem cells may exist a balanced development trend.

Figure 1

(a) The total number of publications related to the publications of tendon stem cells. The blue bars indicate the number of publications each year. (b) Distribution of the publications of tendon stem cells in a world map. (c) The top 20 countries of total number of publications. (d) Model fitting curves of trends in global publications.

Figure 2

(a) The top 20 countries of total citations. (b) The top 20 countries of H-index of publications.

Figure 3

(a) The top 20 journals with most publications related to the research of tendon stem cells. (b) The 20 research orientations and the number of publications in each orientation. (c) The top 20 institutions of high-impact and the number of their publications. (d) The top 20 authors with most publications in this field.

Figure 4

Coauthorship analysis of global research of tendon stem cells. (a) Mapping on the 32 identified countries by co-authorship analysis in this field. (b) Mapping on the 265 identified institutions by coauthorship analysis in this field. (c) Mapping on the 378 identified authors by coauthorship analysis on the research of stem cells for tendon.

Figure 5

Cocitation analysis of global research of tendon stem cells. (a) Mapping on the 825 identified journals by cocitation analysis. (b) Mapping on the 808 identified references by cocitation analysis.

Figure 6

Cooccurrence analysis of global research of tendon stem cells. (a) Mapping on keywords in the research of tendon stem cells; the size of the nodes indicates the frequency, and the keywords are classified into five clusters: animal study (red color), tissue engineering (yellow color), mechanism research (green color), stem cell research (blue color), and clinical study (purple color). (b) Distribution of keywords based upon their time of appearance; purple keywords appeared earlier than green ones, and yellow keywords appear later than both of purple and green keywords.