An In-Depth Bibliometric Analysis and Current Perspective on Male infertility Research

Abstract

Purpose: Male infertility is emerging as a major, escalating global health problem that imposes the need to investigate research trends in male infertility. The purpose of this study is to analyze male infertility research trends in the past 20 years using the bibliometric database from Scopus. Materials and Methods: In order to perform an in-depth bibliometric analysis, we propose a 'Funnel Model', which includes several layers representing different sub-areas of male infertility research. Adopting this Funnel Model, using Scopus, we retrieved relevant bibliometric data (articles per year, authors, affiliations, journals, and countries) for various areas of male infertility research and performed descriptive statistics. Results: The bibliometric analysis showed an exponential increase in male infertility research in the last 20 years. USA dominated in research output, with Agarwal, A. as the most prolific researcher. Testicular cancer, obesity and metabolic syndrome, and azoospermia were found to dominate male infertility research, whereas erectile dysfunction and unexplained male infertility had lesser attention. Interestingly, prognostic/diagnostic and mechanistic studies have significantly increased in parallel over the last 20 years. Furthermore, our bibliometric analysis revealed fewer publications in proteomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics when compared to genomics. Also, an increasing trend in publication was seen in assisted reproductive technology (ART) research. Conclusions: An integrated and steep escalation in the field of omics and ART research appears to be a prerequisite for further development of future diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for male infertility.

Tracking research trends and hotspots in sperm DNA fragmentation testing for the evaluation of male infertility: a scientometric analysis

“…In step 2, additional keywords (Infertil* OR Subfertil* OR Sterility) were used to exclusively narrow down the articles related to ‘SDF and male infertility’. Step 3 was divided into 11 sub-categories, which included different clinical scenarios such as varicocele, oligozoospermia, asthenozoospermia / asthenoteratozoospermia / oligoasthenozoospermia / oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (here after, it is collectively referred as astheno*/oligoastheno*), globozoospermia, testicular cancer, UMI, recurrent pregnancy loss, hypogonadism, and risk factors (obesity, lifestyle and occupational exposure) associated with SDF and male infertility [27]. In step 4, SDF articles related to mechanistic and prognostic/diagnostic studies were retrieved using specific keywords along with the search option used in step 1.…”

“…Scientometrics is a quantitative analysis of scientific literature aimed at measuring and analyzing several aspects of published documents such as institutional and author productivity, networking, and impact analysis of journals, authors and regions [24, 25]. It is a useful tool to monitor the publication trend, which reflects the growth pattern in a particular field of interest [26, 27]. Our earlier publication has provided an in-depth report on male infertility research by analyzing the scientometric data (1998–2017) retrieved from Scopus using a Funnel Model [27].…”

“…It is a useful tool to monitor the publication trend, which reflects the growth pattern in a particular field of interest [26, 27]. Our earlier publication has provided an in-depth report on male infertility research by analyzing the scientometric data (1998–2017) retrieved from Scopus using a Funnel Model [27]. The analysis shed light on various key elements, including the growth of OMICS and ART in male infertility research [27].…”

“…Our earlier publication has provided an in-depth report on male infertility research by analyzing the scientometric data (1998–2017) retrieved from Scopus using a Funnel Model [27]. The analysis shed light on various key elements, including the growth of OMICS and ART in male infertility research [27]. To date, there are no publications on research trends in SDF.…”

Is there plagiarism in the most influential publications in the field of andrology?

“…To begin with, growth in the field of andrology research over the past few decades can be easily acknowledged. A recent bibliometric study revealed a phenomenal increase in male infertility research over the past 20 years and noted that about 3,311 articles related to male infertility were published in 1998, while the number increased to 8,772 in 2017 (Baskaran et al, ). Zhang et al reported that only one original research article was included in the PubMed database in 1960, while the number increased to 574 articles by 1990, and 866 articles by 2012.…”