Long-term trends of publications in journal of neuro-oncology: a bibliographic study of a core journal in the field of neuro-oncology

Abstract

Purpose The Journal of Neuro-Oncology (JNO), established in 1983, plays a key role in publishing research on brain and spinal cord tumors. This study examines JNO’s publication trends, focusing on country and gender representation to highlight its global impact. Methods Statistical analyses were conducted using R. Gender of the first authors was predicted using a gender-guesser, and author affiliations were used to determine publication countries. We introduced a novel Country-Related Diversity (CRD) index to assess the JNO’s representativeness, comparing a country’s JNO publications to its overall neurosurgical output. An index value of 1 indicates proportional representation. Results The JNO corpus, spanning from 1983 to 2024, comprises 8,154 documents with an average document age of 14.4 years. The average citation count per document is 28.71, with a rate of 2.16 citations per document per year. JNO’s scientific output has grown significantly, peaking at 397 articles in 2011, with a long-term annual growth rate of 3.7%. The keyword analysis highlights “glioblastoma” as the most frequent term, reflecting the journal’s neuro-oncological focus. Geographically, the U.S. led with 2,535 articles (40.1%), followed by China and Germany. International collaboration rose steadily, with multi-country publications increasing from 4.76% in 1983 to 20.98% in 2024. Analyzing contributions from different countries showed a converging CRD index toward 1 (P < 0.01), with U.S. and non-U.S. countries trending similarly. Upper-middle-income countries displayed fluctuating CRD patterns, whereas lower-middle-income countries lagged behind. Authorship analysis showed an increasing trend in co-authorship (P < 0.01), with the average number of authors per paper reaching 10.4 by 2024. Gender representation revealed a growing number of female first and senior authors, although males still dominate. By 2024, 32.9% of first authors and 21.6% of senior authors were female, signaling a gradual trend toward gender parity (P < 0.01). Conclusions The CRD index offers a standardized measure of country-specific research representation in the JNO. The convergence towards 1 reflects balanced international representation. JNO publication also reflects a trend toward gender equity, with a notable rise in female first authors, enhancing global research inclusivity.