ArticlePloS one2019
Visualizing a field of research: A methodology of systematic scientometric reviews.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 553 papers, 36 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
553 citing papers in PubMed, 36 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Bibliometric analysis of global research trends in spatially fractionated radiotherapy.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Research landscape, thematic evolution, and translational insights of immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced colitis: a bibliometric analysis (2006-2025).Frontiers in immunology · 2026Pooled it
- Global research landscape, knowledge structure, and emerging trends in adverse childhood experiences and personality disorders: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Hypertension and frailty in older adults: a bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping based on Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed (1973-2025).Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Global landscape, research hotspots, and evolutionary trends in childhood adversity and chronic disease research: a bibliometric analysis based on three databases.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Weaning from mechanical ventilation in ICU patients: research hotspots and trends in the past decade-a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Bibliometric analysis of neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging: research patterns, evolution, and frontier.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Bacteriophage-mediated gut microbiota regulation: a bibliometric landscape analysis (2005-2024).Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- From economic burden to patient-centered solutions: the evolving landscape of financial toxicity in oncology.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring the molecular mechanisms by which exercise improves cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease based on the brain-gut microbiota axis: bibliometrics and visualization analysis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Bibliometric analysis and visualization of ferroptosis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD): a comprehensive review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Pooled it
- Factors of crisis and culture in international and Chinese death education research: a comparative bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Global research trends on the impact of obesity on male infertility: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- From malnutrition to multimodal care: a bibliometric and knowledge mapping analysis of frailty research in cancer.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Quantitative analysis of literature on diagnostic biomarkers of Schizophrenia: revealing research hotspots and future prospects.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Primary Aldosteronism After Adrenalectomy or Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonist Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Pooled it
- A Bibliometric Analysis of Pregnancy-Related Eye Disease from 1999 to 2022.Maternal and child health journal · 2025Pooled it
- Research trends of intestinal barrier in ulcerative colitis: a bibliometric analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Charting the growth of idiopathic short stature research: a 32-year bibliometric study of global advances.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Status of research on the application of melatonin in insomnia based on bibliometric visualization analysis and development trends.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
493 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Systematic scientometric reviews, empowered by computational and visual analytic approaches, offer opportunities to improve the timeliness, accessibility, and reproducibility of studies of the literature of a field of research. On the other hand, effectively and adequately identifying the most representative body of scholarly publications as the basis of subsequent analyses remains a common bottleneck in the current practice. What can we do to reduce the risk of missing something potentially significant? How can we compare different search strategies in terms of the relevance and specificity of topical areas covered? In this study, we introduce a flexible and generic methodology based on a significant extension of the general conceptual framework of citation indexing for delineating the literature of a research field. The method, through cascading citation expansion, provides a practical connection between studies of science from local and global perspectives. We demonstrate an application of the methodology to the research of literature-based discovery (LBD) and compare five datasets constructed based on three use scenarios and corresponding retrieval strategies, namely a query-based lexical search (one dataset), forward expansions starting from a groundbreaking article of LBD (two datasets), and backward expansions starting from a recently published review article by a prominent expert in LBD (two datasets). We particularly discuss the relevance of areas captured by expansion processes with reference to the query-based scientometric visualization. The method used in this study for comparing bibliometric datasets is applicable to comparative studies of search strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.