Science mapping of “Trauma Surgery” by co-word analysis and thematic clustering in MEDLINE

Abstract

Background: Trauma surgery has an interdisciplinary nature among the surgical specialties, and trauma surgeons are required to identify its related scientific fields to acquire the needed skills in controlling the injuries. This study was conducted to investigate the science mapping of trauma surgery based on the bibliographic data of MEDLINE. Methodology: Based on the bibliographic data from the MEDLINE database, the visualizing techniques of bibliometric networks and all the scientific products of the trauma surgery realm indexed at MEDLINE from 2008 to 2017 were investigated. Data analysis was performed using co-word analysis and cluster analysis using the VOSviewer. Results: The growth trend of scientific productions in the field of trauma surgery has been on the rise in the past 10 years. The keyword “trauma,” followed by “osteoporosis,” “fracture outcome,” “trauma surgery,” and “mortality” had respectively the highest frequency. The results of cluster analysis identified the most important basic research subjects of trauma surgery published in MEDLINE in the past 10 years and categorized them into five clusters. Trauma surgery field had a close relationship with the field of orthopedics, basic studies, and laboratory research in comparison with its clinical domains. Conclusion: We attempted to identify the vastness of the knowledge subjects of trauma surgery and to conduct educational research, and technological planning so that the managers and stakeholders can trace the path of future scientific activities in the field of trauma surgery. The identification of this important realm and provision of the required information on the core issues for the users can be facilitated by drawing up a science map and visualizing the main traumatic sciences.