Global research productivity and publication trends in vesicoureteral reflux: a bibliometric analysis.

Abstract

To make a holistic, comprehensive analysis of scientific publications on the subject of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) between 1980 and 2019 using bibliometric methods, and by determining global research trends, to establish an important resource for future studies. All the scientific documents were accessed which had the key word "vesicoureteral reflux" in the "Title" section in the Web of Science (WoS) database between 1980 and 2019. Using bibliometric methods, articles related to VUR (access date:20.08.2020) were analyzed. VOS viewer software was used to visualize the bibliometric network. A total of 2549 publications related to VUR were identified in literature, of which 1387 were articles. There was observed to be a generally increasing trend in the number of articles. According to the results of the regression analysis, the number of articles is expected to increase to 54 in 2020, and to 63 by 2029. The 5 most productive countries were seen to be the USA, Turkey, Japan, Italy and Germany. The 5 journals contributing most to the literature were the Journal of Urology (397), Urology (86), Journal of Pediatric Urology (75), Pediatric Nephrology (64) and European Urology (37). The number of publications on the subject of VUR is expected to continue increasing in the next 10 years. This study, which has provided a detailed and comprehensive analysis of articles related to VUR, can be considered a useful guide for future studies by physicians and researchers.