Artificial liver research output and citations from 2004 to 2017: a bibliometric analysis

Yan Li; Meizhi He; Ziyuan Zou; Xiaohui Bian; Xiaowen Huang; Chen Yang; Shuyi Wei; Shixue Dai

doi:10.7717/peerj.6178

Artificial liver research output and citations from 2004 to 2017: a bibliometric analysis

PeerJ. 2019 Jan 11:6:e6178. doi: 10.7717/peerj.6178. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Yan Li^#¹, Meizhi He^#¹, Ziyuan Zou², Xiaohui Bian¹, Xiaowen Huang², Chen Yang², Shuyi Wei¹, Shixue Dai^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
² The First School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
³ Department of Gastroenterology, Guangdong General Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
⁴ Guangdong Geriatrics Institute, Guangdong General Hospital and Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Researches on artificial livers greatly contribute to the clinical treatments for liver failure. This study aimed to evaluate the research output of artificial livers and citations from 2004 to 2017 through a bibliometric analysis.

Methods: A list of included articles on artificial livers were generated after a comprehensive search of the Web of Science Core Collection (from 2004 to 2017) with the following basic information: number of publications, citations, publication year, country of origin, authors and authorship, funding source, journals, institutions, keywords, and research area.

Results: A total of 968 included articles ranged from 47 citations to 394 citations with a fluctuation. The publications were distributed in 12 countries, led by China (n = 212) and the US (n = 207). There were strong correlations of the number of citations with authors (r ² = 0.133, p < 0.001), and countries (r ² = 0.275, p < 0.001), while no correlations of the number of citations with the years since publication (r ² = 0.016, p = 0.216), and funding (r ² < 0.001, p = 0.770) were identified. Keyword analysis demonstrated that with the specific change of "acute liver failure," decrease in "bioartificial livers" and "hepatocyte," and increase in "tissue engineering" were identified. The top 53 cited keyword and keyword plus (including some duplicates counts) were identified, led by bioartificial liver (405 citations) and hepatocyte (248 citations). The top 50 cited keywords bursts were mainly "Blood" (2004-2008), "hepatocyte like cell" (2008-2015), and "tissue engineering" (2014-2017). All keywords could be classified into four categories: bioartificial livers (57.40%), blood purification (25.00%), clinical (14.81%), and other artificial organs (2.78%).

Discussion: This study shows the process and tendency of artificial liver research with a comprehensive analysis on artificial livers. However, although it seems that the future of artificial livers seems brighter for hepatocyte transplantation, the systems of artificial livers now are inclined on focusing on blood purification, plasma exchange, etc.

Keywords: Artificial livers; Bibliometric analysis; Citations; Keyword.

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (201712121157), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (CPSF, No. 2018T110855 and No. 2017M622650) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 81300370). There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.