Publications of systematic review and meta-analysis in the indexed anesthesia journals: a 10-year bibliometric analysis

TL;DR

This study analyzes trends in systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in anesthesia journals over 10 years to identify research hotspots and gaps.

Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of SRMA in anesthesia journals, highlighting trends and key research areas.

Findings

2021 had the highest number of SRMA publications (385/3,004).

Pain management was the most common topic, with 22 of 36 highly cited papers focusing on it.

The United States was the most productive country with 823 SRMAs published.

Abstract

Anesthesiology research is growing at a rapid pace. It is essential to understand the scope and trends over time to identify gaps and future areas for growth. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRMA) are summaries of the best available evidence to address a specific research question via a comprehensive literature search, in-depth analyses, and synthesis of results. High-quality SRMA are increasingly used and play an essential role in medical research.

We aimed to explore the trends of SRMA in indexed anesthesia journals.

SRMA published in indexed anesthesia journals from 2013 to 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Data were presented via descriptive statistics. We used CiteSpace 6.1.R6 to analyze countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords through visual maps to explore the research hotspots and trends. The journal’s Journal Citation Reports partition, impact factor, annual publications, journals H-index, and a number of highly-cited papers were calculated in the WoS database.

A total of 34 indexed anesthesia journals and 3,004 SRMA were included. The year 2021 was the year with the most SRMA (385/3,004). Out of the 3,004 SRMAs, 36 (0.03%) were highly cited papers, and 22 of the 36 highly cited papers focused on “pain management.” BRITISH JOURNAL OF ANAESTHESIA had the highest 5-year impact factor (9.6) in 2022 Journal Citation Reports, the most significant number of publications (268/3,004), the highest total number of citations (13,173/86,145), and the most significant number of SRMAs cited more than 100 (36/160). ANAESTHESIA achieved the highest impact factor in the 2022 Journal Citation Reports (10.7) and the highest average annual citations (58.82). PAIN had the highest number of highly cited papers (15/36). The United States of America was the most productive country, with 823/3,004 SRMAs. University Toronto had the highest number of publications (245/3,004). The most frequent of keywords was the topic “Pain Management” (1,622/29.1%).

This present study would be valuable to practitioners, academics, researchers, and students in understanding the dynamics of progress in anesthesiology.

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