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. 2023 May 9;6(3):e1261.
doi: 10.1002/jsp2.1261. eCollection 2023 Sep.

The research landscape of immunology research in spinal cord injury from 2012 to 2022

Bowen Zheng  1   2 , Yirui Kuang  3   4 , Dun Yuan  3   4 , Haoxuan Huang  3   4 , Songlin Liu  3   4
Affiliations

The research landscape of immunology research in spinal cord injury from 2012 to 2022

Bowen Zheng et al. JOR Spine. .

Abstract

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is defined as traumatic damage to the spinal cord, affecting over three million patients worldwide, and there is still no treatment for the injured spinal cord itself. In recent years, immunology research on SCI has been published in various journals.

Methods: To systematically analyze the research hotspots and dynamic scientific developments of immunology research in SCI, we conducted a bibliometric and knowledge map analysis to help researchers gain a global perspective in this research field.

Results: The bibliometric study we completed included 1788 English-language papers published in 553 journals by 8861 authors from 1901 institutions in 66 countries/regions. Based on the references and keyword analysis, researchers in the past 10 years have mainly focused on the research directions of "monocyte chemoattractor protein 1," "nitric oxide," "pain," and "nitric oxide synthase" related to immunological research in SCI. However, with the development of other new directions such as "extracellular vesicles" (2019-2022), "Regenerative medicine" (2019-2022), "stromal cells" (2018-2022), "motor recovery" (2019-2022), and "glial activation" (2019-2022). Researchers prefer to study the application of regenerative strategies in SCI, the mechanism of extracellular vesicles in the development of SCI, the activation of spinal glial cells in SCI, and the pathways of motor recovery. This bibliometric analysis of immunology research in SCI summarizes the current status of this research field. The relationship between extracellular vesicles, regenerative medicine, stromal cells, motor recovery, and glial activation is currently a major research frontier. Further research and cooperation worldwide need to be enhanced.

Conclusion: We believe that our research can help researchers quickly grasp the current hotspot of immunology research in SCI and determine a new direction for future research.

Keywords: CiteSpace; VOSviewer; bibliometric analysis; immunology; spinal cord injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flowchart depicting the article selection process.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Global trends and countries/regions contributing to the research field regarding immunology in spinal cord injury (SCI) from 2012 to 2022. (A) The annual number of publications related to immunology research in SCI. (B) A world map depicting the distribution of immunology research in SCI. (C) The annual number of publications in the 10 most productive countries from 2012 to 2022.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
(A) The top 25 countries/regions of total citations related to immunology research in spinal cord injury (SCI). (B) The top 25 countries/regions of the publication H‐index related to immunology research in SCI. (C) The top 25 countries/regions of the average citations per publication related to immunology research in SCI.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Mapping of countries/regions and institutions associated with immunology research in spinal cord injury. Country/regional collaboration analysis derived based on CiteSpace (A) and Vosviewer (B). Institutional collaboration analysis based on CiteSpace (C) and Vosviewer (D). The nodes represent countries/regions or institutions, and the lines connect them. The number of publications grows proportionally to the size of the nodes. The lines between the nodes represent the cooperation relationship, and the thickness of the connecting lines represents the strength of their cooperation; the closer the cooperation is, the thicker the connecting lines. The nodes with the outermost purple circles have higher centrality.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Articles published in different journals on immunology research in spinal cord injury (SCI). (A) The dual‐map overlay of journals related to immunology research in SCI. (B) Network map of journals that were cocited in more than 50 citations based on Vosviewer. (C) Top 25 cited journals with the strongest citation bursts of publications related to immunology research in SCI.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
CiteSpace network visualization of author collaboration analysis and co‐cited authors regarding immunology research in spinal cord injury (SCI). (A) Author publishing analysis. (B) Network visualization diagram of the co‐cited authors of the publications associated with immunology research in SCI. (C) Top 25 cited authors with the strongest citation bursts of publications related to immunology research in SCI. Author collaboration or co‐cited authors are indicated by the node. The co‐citation relationship is indicated by the line connecting the nodes. The node area grows as the number of co‐citations increases. The colors represent different years in which the color changes from green to yellow from 2012 to 2022.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Mapping of documents and references in studies on immunology research in spinal cord injury. (A) Network map of the citation analysis of documents with more than 50 citations based on Vosviewer. (B) Network map of co‐citation analysis of references based on CiteSpace. (C) Clustering analysis of the co‐citation network based on CiteSpace.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Top 25 references with the strongest citation bursts of publications related to immunology research in spinal cord injury.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Mapping of keywords in studies on immunology research in spinal cord injury (SCI). (A) Network visualization of keywords. (B) Distribution of keywords according to average publication year (blue: earlier, yellow: later). (C) Keyword clustering visualization from 2012 to 2022. (D) Top 25 keywords with the strongest citation bursts of publications related to immunology research in SCI.
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