Global knowledge mapping and emerging trends in research between spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia and gastric carcinogenesis: A bibliometric analysis from 2002 to 2022.

Background: Spasmolytic polypeptide expression metaplasia (SPEM) occurs in the corpus of the stomach and is closely related to inflammations caused by Methods: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) for publications related to SPEM-GC from 2002 to 2022. The VOSviewer, SCImago, CiteSpace and R software were used to visualize and analyze the data. Gene targets identified in the keyword list were analyzed for functional enrichment using the KEGG and GO databases. Results: Of the 292 articles identified in the initial search, we observed a stable trend in SPEM-GC research but rapid growth in the number of citations. The United States was the leader in terms of quality publications and international cooperation among them. The total number of articles published by Chinese scholars was second to the United States. Additionally, despite its low centrality and average citation frequency, China has become one of the world's most dynamic countries in academics. In terms of productivity, Vanderbilt University was identified as the most productive institution. Further, we also observed that Gastroenterology was the highest co-cited journal, and Goldenring Jr. was the most prolific author with the largest centrality. Conclusion: SPEM could serve as an initial step in diagnosing gastric precancerous lesions. Current hotspots and frontiers of research include SPEM cell lineage differentiation, interaction with