Two Decades of Publications in Journals Dedicated to Autoimmunity: A Bibliometric Analysis of the Autoimmunity Field from 2004 to 2023

Abstract

To carry out an in-depth analysis of the scientific research on autoimmunity, we performed the first bibliometric analysis focusing on publications in journals dedicated to autoimmunity (JDTA) indexed by science citation index during the period 2004–2023. Using bibliometric analysis, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed the country, institution, author, reference and keywords information of publications in JDTA, so as to understand the quantity, publication pattern and publication characteristics of these publications. The co-occurrence networks, clustering map and timeline map were created by CiteSpace and VOSviewer software to visualize the results. The CiteSpace was also used to analyze the strongest citation burst of keywords, which could describe the frequency, intensity and time period of high-frequency keywords, and indicate the research hotspots in the field. A total of 5 710 publications were analyzed, and their annual distribution number was basically stable from 2004 to 2023, fluctuating around 300. The United States and Italy led the way in terms of the number of publications, followed by France and China. For international cooperation, the developed countries represented by the United States cooperate more closely, but the cooperation was localized, reflecting that there was no unified model of autoimmunity among countries. UDICE-French Research Universities had the greatest number of publications. Subsequently, the number of publications decreased slowly with the ranking, and the gradient was not large. Eric Gershwin and Yehuda Shoenfeld stood out among the authors. They had an excellent academic reputation and great influence in the field of autoimmunity. The results of keyword analysis showed that JDTA publications mainly studied a variety of autoimmune diseases, especially SLE and RA. At the same time, JDTA publications also paid special attention to the research of cell function, autoantibody expression, animal experiments, disease activity, pathogenesis and treatment. This study is the first to analyze the publications in JDTA from multiple indicators by bibliometrics, thus providing new insights into the research hotspots and development trends in the field of autoimmunity.