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

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.

Multi-Disciplinary Approach and Collaborative Studies Increase the Impact of Osteoarthritis Publications: A European Perspective

“…The number of articles that had the key word of OA in their title generated by the EU, Non-EU and Geo-EU Countries increased from the year of 2007 to 2021. Our findings were in line with previous studies that analyzed the trend in publications previously (Zhang et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2022;Hu et al, 2022;Patel et al, 2022;Muthu et al, 2022;Molyneux et al, 2022;Ren et al, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2020;Li et al, 2020 R;Chen et al, 2021;Xing et al, 2018;Gupta & Gupta, 2018;Gao et al, 2020).Furthermore, we focused on comparing the impact of OA research from Europe by analyzing trends from the years of 2007 to 2021 for articles published in the EU, non-EU associated and geographically European countries. We limited our search to articles only and did not include all documents.…”

Medical magnetic resonance imaging publications in Arab countries: A 25-year bibliometric analysis

“…This could be due to the fact that these countries are the leading contributors to scientific research [ 57 ]. Additionally, they are the most productive of most bibliometric analyses [ [58] , [59] , [60] ].…”