Contemporary Scientometric Characteristics of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Mario Milkov, Dimitar Tomov, Miroslav Stoykov, Silvena Baycheva, Elena Todorova
TL;DR
This paper analyzes the scientometric trends in obstructive sleep apnea research from 2019 to 2023, highlighting global contributions and key themes.
Contribution
The study provides a comprehensive scientometric analysis of obstructive sleep apnea research, emphasizing international collaboration and institutional trends.
Findings
The USA and China dominated research output in obstructive sleep apnea.
Publications were available in 23 languages, mainly in Scopus and MEDLINE.
Clinical neurology and respiratory system were the most common thematic categories.
Abstract
Objective The purpose of the present investigation is to analyze some essential scientometric features of the dynamic institutionalization and internationalization of contemporary research on obstructive sleep apnea, a common and socially significant respiratory sleep disorder affecting adults and children worldwide. Methods A retrospective, problem-oriented, title-word-based search was performed in the Science Citation Index Expanded, MEDLINE, and BIOSIS Citation Index of Web of Science, as well as in Scopus, for the period 2019-2023. The annual dynamics of the quantitative characteristics of several essential scientometric indicators were comparatively assessed. Results A total of 9,692 publications were abstracted in the Science Citation Index Expanded, 8,103 in Scopus, 7,421 in MEDLINE, and 3,130 in BIOSIS. Authors from 118, 165, and 74 countries had publications abstracted in…
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Figure 1
Figure 2| Document Type | SCI Exp | BIOSIS | MEDLINE | Scopus |
| Article | 5,155 | 1,867 | 7,020 | 5,955 |
| Review | 894 | – | 895 | 1,063 |
| Letter to the Editor | 413 | 73 | 329 | 333 |
| Editorial | 363 | – | 208 | – |
| Conference Abstract | 3,143 | 1,103 | – | 183 |
| Proceedings Paper | 47 | – | – | 184 |
| Book Chapter | 12 | 18 | – | – |
| Patent | – | 69 | – | – |
| Systematic Review | – | – | 379 | – |
| Meta-analysis | – | – | 369 | – |
| Case Report | – | – | 193 | – |
| Randomized Controlled Trial | – | – | 327 | – |
| Multicentre Study | – | – | 134 | – |
| Observational Study | – | – | 212 | – |
| Comparative Study | – | 109 | – | – |
| Language of Publication | SCI Exp | BIOSIS | MEDLINE | Scopus |
| English | 9,964 | 3,099 | 7,385 | 7,479 |
| Chinese | – | 14 | 231 | 340 |
| German | 25 | 1 | 23 | 84 |
| Spanish | 18 | 4 | 53 | 65 |
| Russian | 4 | 10 | 24 | 88 |
| French | 12 | – | 30 | 43 |
| Portuguese | 5 | – | 18 | 21 |
| Korean | – | – | – | 15 |
| Czech | 2 | – | 1 | 11 |
| Japanese | – | – | 1 | 9 |
| No. | Journal Title | SCI Exp | BIOSIS | MEDLINE |
| 1 | Sleep | 734 | 618 | 149 |
| 2 | Sleep and Breathing | 608 | – | 558 |
| 3 | Journal of Sleep Medicine | 718 | – | 346 |
| 4 | Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine | 443 | – | 445 |
| 5 | American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine | 565 | 91 | 98 |
| 6 | Journal of Sleep Research | 387 | 362 | – |
| 7 | European Respiratory Journal | 558 | 26 | 42 |
| 8 | Chest | 200 | 65 | 93 |
| 9 | Scientific Reports | 108 | 112 | 111 |
| 10 | Journal of Clinical Medicine | 148 | – | 151 |
| 11 | Nature and Science of Sleep | 126 | – | 127 |
| 12 | European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology | 85 | 70 | 83 |
| 13 | PLOS ONE | 75 | 77 | 78 |
| 14 | The Laryngoscope | 98 | – | 85 |
| 15 | Sleep Medicine Reviews | 85 | – | 70 |
| No. | Author’s Name | SCI Exp | BIOSIS | MEDLINE | Scopus |
| 1 | Malhotra A | 125 | 32 | 76 | 59 |
| 2 | Cistulli P | 114 | 34 | 70 | 62 |
| 3 | Pépin J | 134 | 31 | 69 | 38 |
| 4 | Gozal D | 88 | 23 | 81 | 67 |
| 5 | Eckert D | 75 | 29 | 49 | 51 |
| 6 | Redline S | 67 | 36 | 46 | 33 |
| 7 | Tufik S | 63 | 13 | 53 | 33 |
| 8 | Tamisier R | 64 | 16 | 34 | 33 |
| 9 | Keenan B | 59 | 19 | 37 | 23 |
| 10 | Peker Y | 65 | – | 35 | 34 |
| 11 | Penzel T | 48 | – | 41 | 43 |
| 12 | Sands S | 74 | 22 | 33 | – |
| 13 | Verbraecken J | 61 | – | 34 | 30 |
| 14 | Hedner J | 70 | 29 | – | 22 |
| 15 | Pack A | 49 | 18 | 29 | 19 |
| No. | Institution | Country | Publications |
| 1 | Flinders University | Australia | 380 |
| 2 | University of Pennsylvania | USA | 352 |
| 3 | University of California, San Diego | USA | 340 |
| 4 | Shanghai Jiao Tong University | China | 297 |
| 5 | University of Pittsburgh | USA | 270 |
| 6 | University of Sydney | Australia | 257 |
| 7 | Brigham and Women’s Hospital | USA | 197 |
| 8 | Stanford University | USA | 172 |
| 9 | University of Toronto | Canada | 149 |
| 10 | Harvard Medical School | USA | 110 |
| 11 | Chang Gung University | Taiwan | 100 |
| Forum title | WoS | BIOSIS | ||
| Events | Abstracts | Events | Abstracts | |
| Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) | 4 | 497 | 4 | 483 |
| International Conference of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) | 2 | 388 | 1 | 17 |
| International Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) | 3 | 259 | – | – |
| Congress of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) | 1 | 93 | 1 | 93 |
| Conference of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) | – | – | 1 | 101 |
| Virtual International Conference of the American Thoracic Society | 1 | 74 | – | – |
| Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association and the Australasian Sleep Technologists Association (ASA/ASTA) | 1 | 62 | 1 | 62 |
| First Author’s Name, Ref | Brief Bibliographic Description | SCI Exp / MEDLINE | Scopus |
| Benjafield AV et al. [ | The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2019; 7: 687-698. | 1,849 | 2,052 |
| Gottlieb DJ and Punjabi NM [ | JAMA. 2020; 323: 1389-1400. | 596 | 650 |
| Yeghiazarians Y et al. [ | Circulation. 2021; 144: e56-e67. | 445 | 503 |
| Patil SP et al. [ | Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2019; 15: 301-334. | 432 | 406 |
| Veasey SC and Rosen IM [ | The New England Journal of Medicine. 2019; 380: 1442-1449. | 312 | 337 |
| Patil SP et al. [ | Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2019; 15: 335-343. | 293 | 460 |
| Mazzotti DR et al. [ | American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2019; 200: 493-506. | 275 | 294 |
| Sánchez-de-la-Torre M et al. [ | The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2020; 8: 359-367. | 262 | 276 |
| Tietjens JR et al. [ | Journal of the American Heart Association. 2019; 8: e010440. | 221 | 235 |
| Fietze I et al. [ | Journal of Sleep Research. 2019; 28: e12770. | 199 | 224 |
| Citation Parameter | SCI Exp | BIOSIS |
| Total number of abstracted publications | 9,692 | 3,130 |
| Total number of received citations | 58,307 | 7,775 |
| Total number of received citations (excluding self-citations) | 37,095 | 5,334 |
| Percentage of citations without self-citations (%) | 63.62 | 68.6 |
| Total number of citing articles | 21,284 | 4,604 |
| Total number of citing articles (excluding self-citing articles) | 16,667 | 3,620 |
| Percentage of citing articles without self-citation (%) | 78.31 | 78.63 |
| Average number of received citations per article | 6 | 2.48 |
| Number of articles cited at least once | 5,910 | 1,399 |
| Percentage of articles cited at least once (%) | 60.98 | 44.7 |
| Hirsch index (h-index) | 69 | 32 |
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Taxonomy
TopicsObstructive Sleep Apnea Research · Neuroscience of respiration and sleep · Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research
Introduction
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common respiratory sleep disorder, associated with increased mortality, reduced quality of life, and a higher risk of work-related accidents and injuries [1].
The OSA-18 questionnaire has been translated and culturally adapted for use in the Turkish-speaking population [2]. Its Turkish version demonstrates excellent reliability, with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.929. Validity is confirmed through a positive correlation between the OSA-18 score and external parameters such as the Mallampati score and tonsil and adenoid size.
Acute or chronic upper airway obstruction, resolved after tracheotomy or upper respiratory tract surgical procedures in OSA patients, can lead to severe dyspnea with pulmonary edema [3]. A 46-year-old male patient developed negative pressure pulmonary edema as a complication of tracheotomy performed due to severe upper airway obstruction following a deep neck infection, which was diagnosed early and promptly treated.
Scientometrics represents a branch of modern applied science that examines the structure and dynamics of scientific communication. Problem-oriented scientometric investigations into these aspects of science, as well as international collaboration under the conditions of globalization, competition, and institutionalization, contribute to enhancing the quality and prestige of interdisciplinary science in both powerful and smaller countries [4]. According to the authors’ concept of the unity of interdisciplinarity, institutionalization, and internationalization of science and university education [4], these essential elements of the contemporary scientific enterprise are increasingly interconnected and, therefore, should be comprehensively analyzed together.
The purpose of the present study is to analyze key scientometric features of the dynamic institutionalization and internationalization of contemporary OSA research, and to identify the leading researchers, key information sources, and prominent scientific institutions in this interdisciplinary field, thereby promoting the further development of international collaboration.
Materials and methods
In September 2024, a retrospective, problem-oriented, title-word-based search was performed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI Exp), MEDLINE, and BIOSIS Citation Index (BIOSIS) of Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics, USA), as well as in Scopus (Elsevier, the Netherlands), for the period 2019-2023.
The bibliographic descriptions of all relevant publications, whether directly or to a greater or lesser extent related to various aspects of this complex area, were retrieved and processed. The annual dynamics of the quantitative characteristics of the following essential scientometric indicators were comparatively assessed: number of abstracted publications; types of documents; languages of publication; countries of authors and their number of publications; journal titles and the number of papers abstracted in them; author names and their number of publications; thematic categories of the abstracted publications; names of scientific institutions and scientific forums, along with the number of abstracted publications; and the most productive scientific institutions. Cumulative citation parameters were also analyzed. An automated citation analysis of the most cited papers was likewise conducted.
All acquired data have been presented in the form of figures and tables using Microsoft Office 2003 software, highlighting the most prominent results.
Results
A total of 9,692 publications are abstracted in SCI Exp, 8,103 in Scopus, 7,421 in MEDLINE, and 3,130 in BIOSIS. The annual dynamics of the number of publications abstracted in these four databases are illustrated in Figure 1.
Annual trends in the number of publications abstracted in SCI Exp, Scopus, MEDLINE, and BIOSIS.SCI Exp: Science Citation Index Expanded; Scopus: Scopus Database (Elsevier, Netherlands); MEDLINE: Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online; BIOSIS: BIOSIS Citation Index (Biological Abstracts and BIOSIS Previews).
A total of 118, 165, and 74 countries have author affiliations with publications abstracted in SCI Exp, Scopus, and BIOSIS, respectively. However, there are 29, 29, and 8 countries, respectively, with only one publication by their authors.
The significant contributions from countries (excluding the USA and China) are shown in Figure 2. Authors from the USA are represented by a total of 2,963, 1,902, and 885 publications, while those from China have 1,650, 1,558, and 503 publications abstracted in SCI Exp, Scopus, and BIOSIS, respectively.
Distribution of significant countries (excluding the USA and China) by number of publications.
The distributions of document types and common languages of publication are shown in Tables 1-2. There are a total of 23 publication languages: 22 in Scopus, 17 in MEDLINE, 9 in SCI Exp, and 7 in BIOSIS.
The journals with the highest number of papers abstracted in Web of Science, the so-called ‘core’ journals, are listed in Table 3. The journals with the most articles abstracted in Scopus include: International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology (70), European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology (68), Annals of the American Thoracic Society (66), and Sleep Science (57 articles) [1-4].
The most productive authors with publications abstracted in these four databases are listed in Table 4.
The most productive scientific institutions and their countries in SCI Exp are listed in Table 5.
In Scopus, the leading institution is Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University (China), with 284 publications. This is followed by Chang Gung University (China) with 261, the University of Toronto (Canada) with 189, Harvard Medical School (USA) with 176, and Universiteit van Amsterdam (Netherlands) with 174 publications [1-4].
The number of events and abstracts from the most common scientific forums is shown in Table 6.
Table 7 presents the ten most cited publications in SCI Exp/MEDLINE and Scopus [5-14].
Table 8 displays the cumulative citation parameters in SCI Exp and BIOSIS. The values of the Hirsch index are relatively high.
Clinical neurology, respiratory system, and neurosciences are among the most common thematic categories in SCI Exp, while complications, polysomnography, diagnosis, therapy, and epidemiology of OSA are predominant in the Medical Subject Headings in MEDLINE.
Discussion
Our results are similar to recently published scientometric investigations on this hot topic.
A retrospective, problem-oriented scientometric investigation of the use of geographical information systems in health planning across six databases between 1990 and 2010 reveals that MEDLINE (via PubMed) presents with 484 papers published in 243 journals [15]. Publications by authors from 44 countries are abstracted in Web of Science. English dominates, with 14 other languages represented in significant numbers.
The results of a retrospective, problem-oriented scientometric study on pediatric sleep apnea in Web of Science, MEDLINE, and Scopus show a steady increase in global publication output [16]. Between 1985 and 2010, more than 8,100 authors from 64 countries published 3,213 papers in 626 journals and 256 conference proceedings abstracted in Web of Science. Between 1973 and 2010, 152 authors published 687 papers in 144 journals, in 19 languages, abstracted in Scopus.
A bibliometric analysis of 4,022 publications on childhood OSA abstracted in Web of Science and PubMed between 2013 and 2022 shows that the USA presents with the highest number of publications [17]. The University of Cincinnati and the University of Pennsylvania are the most productive organizations. The International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology is the most prolific journal.
One bibliometric analysis of 1,995 articles devoted to OSA and cognition, retrieved from Web of Science between 2003 and 2022, demonstrates a notable increase in publication numbers and significant contributions from authors and institutions in the USA, particularly Harvard University [18]. Another analysis of 79 articles dealing with OSA and anesthesia identifies the following hot topics: airway safety, postoperative pain control, and noninvasive mechanical ventilation treatments such as continuous positive airway pressure [19].
Co-citation and cluster analyses, along with keyword co-occurrence of relevant publications extracted over the last 20 years from the Web of Science Core Collection, identify the most prominent terms related to sleep quality and associated genes: OSA, genome-wide association studies, circadian rhythms, DNA methylation, and depression [20].
A bibliometric analysis of 1,894 publications devoted to postoperative pain and sleep disorders retrieved from the Web of Science database between 2013 and 2023 confirms that OSA is a hot topic in this field [21]. A global collaborative network is centered around the USA, China, and Europe.
Bibliometric analyses and science mapping of 7,263 articles and reviews addressing the association between arterial hypertension and OSA, searched in the Web of Science Core Collection up to July 3, 2021, identify rapid research development in this interdisciplinary field [22]. The USA and Harvard Medical School dominate, and Sleep and Breathing is the most productive journal.
Between 2009 and 2018, a total of 12,666 articles on OSA were abstracted in SCI Exp of Web of Science [23]. Their number increased from 895 in 2009 to 1,592 in 2018. The international collaboration rate was 18.2%. The country collaboration network identifies the USA as the hegemonic node.
An analysis of 24,291 compliant publications on OSA retrieved from Web of Science between 2011 and 2020 demonstrates a consistent annual increase in volume [24]. The USA dominates global research in this field. Gozal D has made significant contributions, and the University of Pennsylvania is the most prolific scientific institution.
Bibliometric and visualization analyses of 2,584 publications on OSA treatment in adults, retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection between 1999 and 2022, indicate the dominance of the USA and the University of Sydney [25].
A bibliometric analysis of the relationship between OSA and cardiovascular diseases reveals a total of 7,047 publications abstracted in the Web of Science Core Collection between 2010 and 2021 [26]. The USA is the largest contributor and a key player in the international cooperation network.
Among a total of 42,878 manuscripts on OSA abstracted in Web of Science, 100 influential manuscripts were published between 2005 and 2017, mainly in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Sleep, and Chest [27]. In the same database, 14 OSA-related papers were bibliometrically identified between 1992 and 2018 among the top 100 most-cited randomized controlled trial reports in the field of orthodontics [28]. Additionally, the top 100 most cited articles in sleep medicine, published in 49 journals by institutions from nine countries, include 22 focused directly on OSA, with Sleep being the most frequently cited journal [29].
The University of Helsinki, the University of Heidelberg, and the German Cancer Research Center were identified in the Web of Science Core Collection, MEDLINE, and BIOSIS Citation Index of Web of Knowledge, as well as in Scopus, between 1987 and 2016, as the most influential scientific institutions in the field of colorectal tumour markers [30].
Conclusions
Authors’ analysis identifies the recent contributions of individual countries, researchers, and their institutions in OSA. The outlined dynamic science stratification on this topic, concerning publication output, citation practices, and international collaboration, deserves special attention from science policymakers and research managers in smaller countries. This rich bibliographic data collection can be used by clinicians and scientists striving for greater international visibility and prestige for their national medical science.
The syndrome of OSA and snoring is one of the serious health issues of the 21st century. It severely affects the quality of life of those impacted. Therefore, adequate and timely measures, both medical and legislative, must be taken to address its consequences.
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