The Evolution of Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Holistic Investigation of Global Outputs with Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Background: Gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the main presentations in emergency department admissions. Although there has been much improvement in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment recently, patients with GIB still have high morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to analyze the scientific articles on gastrointestinal bleeding published between 1980 and 2020 using statistical and bibliometric methods.

Methods: Articles about gastrointestinal bleeding published between 1980 and 2020 were downloaded using the Web of Science data base and analyzed using statistical methods. Network visualization maps were used to identify trending topics. Correlation studies were evaluated using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Nonlinear regression analysis (exponential model) was used to estimate the number of articles in future years.

Results: A total of 12 568 publications about gastrointestinal bleeding were found. Forty percent (n = 5033) of these publications were articles. The top 3 contributing countries to the literature were the United States of America (1646, 32.7%), the United Kingdom (433, 9%), and Germany (391, 7.7%). The top three journals with the most publications were Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (172), American Journal of Gastroenterology (165), and Digestive Diseases and Sciences (161). The effect of countries' gross domestic product levels on article productivity on gastrointestinal bleeding was significant (r = 0. 770, P < .001).

Conclusion: In this comprehensive study, a summary of 5033 articles was presented. We think that these detailed analyses will be a quick source to show the past, present, and future of this subject to those who are currently working on gastrointestinal bleeding.

Figure 1.

Number of articles published on gastrointestinal bleeding by years and estimation of the number of articles that will be published in the future.

Figure 2.

World map for the distribution of articles by country on gastrointestinal bleeding. In the indicator given at the top left of the figure, productivity increases from light to dark.

Figure 3

(A) Cluster analysis of international collaboration of worldwide countries on gastrointestinal bleeding. The size of the circle shows a large number of articles. The thickness of the lines indicates the strength of international collaboration. (B) Density map for international collaboration of worldwide countries on gastrointestinal bleeding. International collaboration increases from blue to red (blue-green-yellow-red).

Figure 4.

Scatterplot showing the relationships between the logarithms of countries’ gross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capita values, and their article productivity.

Figure 5.

Network visualization map for citation analysis of active journals on gastrointestinal bleeding. The size of the circle shows a large number of articles. The number of citations from blue to red (blue-green-yellow-red) increases.

Figure 6.

Network visualization map for cluster analysis based on keyword analysis on gastrointestinal bleeding. Colors show clustering. Keywords in the same cluster are of the same color. The circle size increases with the number of times the keyword is used.

Figure 7.

Network visualization map for trends on gastrointestinal bleeding. Indicator shows trend keywords from blue to red (blue-green-yellow-red). The circle size increases with the number of times the keyword is used.