Background and objectivesDiabetes mellitus is a serious metabolic disease that causes a serious economic burden worldwide. Gut flora is a major component of diabetes research, and the aim of this study was to understand the trends and major components of research related to diabetes and gut flora in the last 11 years.MethodsWe searched the Web of Science Core Collection database for articles on diabetes and gut flora related research from 2011-2021 on July 2, 2022. The literature data were analyzed for country, institution, author, steward, journal, and highly cited literature using Citespace.5.8.R3 and Vosviewer1.6.17.ResultsFinally 4834 articles that met the requirements were included. The overall trend of articles published in the last 11 years is increasing, and the trend of articles published after 2019 is increasing significantly. In total, 109 countries, 4820 institutions, and 23365 authors were involved in the field of research. The highest number of publications was 1262 articles from the United States, the institution with the most publications was the University of Copenhagen with 134 articles, and the author with the most publications was PATRICE D CANI with 52 articles.ConclusionThe number of studies related to diabetes and intestinal flora is increasing and more and more researchers are involved in this field. Intestinal flora provides a key research direction for the treatment of diabetes. In the future, gut flora will remain the focus of the diabetes field.

Background and aimUlcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, and intestinal flora plays an important role in ulcerative colitis. In this study, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications in the field of intestinal flora and ulcerative colitis research in the past 10 years to summarize the current status of the field and analyze the trends in the field.MethodsOn July 15, 2022, we chose the Web of Science Core Collection database as the study’s data source. CiteSpace.5.8.R3 and VOSviewer 1.6.17 were used to examine publications of research on intestinal flora and ulcerative colitis that were published between 2012 and 2021. We looked through the papers for journals, organizations, nations and regions, authors, and key terms.ResultsThis analysis covered a total of 2,763 papers on studies into intestinal flora and ulcerative colitis. There were 13,913 authors, 93 nations, 3,069 organizations, and 759 journals in all of the articles. In the USA, 767 publications were the most. The university with the most publications was Harvard Medical School. The author with the most articles was Antonio Gasbarrini.ConclusionThis study summarizes the global research trends in intestinal flora and ulcerative colitis. Publications in this field have increased year by year in the last decade and the field of research on intestinal flora and ulcerative colitis has good prospects for growth.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a gastrointestinal disorder with no structural damage, and its pathogenesis remains unclear. Studies have shown that the brain–gut axis is closely related to the occurrence of IBS. However, studies of IBS related to the brain–gut axis have not been systematically analyzed by bibliometrics and visual analysis. This study is based on 631 publications in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) to analyze hot spots and trends in this field. The collaborations between different authors, institutions, countries, and keywords were bibliometrically analyzed by CiteSpace software. Meanwhile, VOSviewer analyzed the references. The results show that since 2012, the number of publications has been growing rapidly. According to the collaborative network analysis, the United States, the National University of Ireland, Cork, and J.F. Cryan are the countries, institutions, and authors contributing the most, respectively. Through keywords and literature analysis, mechanisms and therapy associated with IBS and the brain–gut axis have still been a research focus in recent years. Furthermore, the physiological and pathological mechanisms of the brain–gut axis influencing IBS (related to gastrointestinal dysfunction, vagus nerve, visceral pain, intestinal flora, serotonin, tryptophan metabolism, stress, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and malonyldialdehyde) are the future research trends, especially the mechanisms related to intestinal flora. This is the first bibliometric and visualization analysis of IBS and brain–gut axis-related literature to explore research hotspots and trends.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic non-specific inflammatory disease of intestinal tract and a common digestive system disease. Current studies have shown that IBD significantly increases the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC), and is positively correlated with the degree and extent of inflammation of IBD. The relationship between IBD and CRC has attracted extensive attention. However, the relationship between IBD and CRC has not been systematically studied by bibliometrics and visual analysis. This study conducted bibliometric analysis based on 3528 publications from the Core Collection of Web of Science to determine the research status, research hotspots and frontiers of this field. The results show that the number of publications has increased significantly over the past 10 years. The cooperative network analysis shows that the United States, Mayo Clin and Bo Shen are the country, institution and author with the most publications respectively. Belgium, Icahn Sch Med Mt Sinai and Erik Mooiweer are the most collaborative country, institution and author respectively. Analysis of keywords and references showed that inflammation, intestinal flora, and obesity were hot topics in this field. Analysis of keyword outbreaks shows that the gut microbiome and metabolism will be an emerging new research area and a potential hot spot for future research. This study is the first to visually examine the association between IBD and CRC using bibliometrics and visual analysis, and to predict potential future research trends.