Objective: Connectomics is an emerging and novel research area in neuroscience. We performed a bibliometric analysis to characterize the most impactful articles regarding connectomics, in hopes of evaluating the current state of the field and guiding future research.
Methods: The Web of Science ™ database was queried to identify the 50 most cited articles regarding brain connectomics. Publication meta-data, including country of origin, journal of publication, citation count, and year of publication were extracted and analyzed. Studies were qualitatively analyzed to characterize the goals and area of research.
Results: The top 50 cited articles were published between 2005 and 2018, with a majority revolving around MRI acquisition and down-stream processing (n = 24, 48%). Articles were published in journals with an average impact factor of 16.5 and averaged a citation count of 1019 (+ 627.2). Most articles originated from the United States (n = 27, 54%) displayed level II (n = 18, 36%) or level V (n = 20, 40%) evidence.
Conclusion: The Human Connectome Project in 2009 spurred widespread research on functional brain connectivity, and the effort to understand the functional networks and connections of the nervous system remains an area of exciting potential. Despite much work done to understand image acquisition and analysis, a renewed appreciation for the wide clinical application of connectomics is warranted. Our analysis helps contextualize the most relevant scientific work on brain connectomics, providing insights for the future for connectomics research.
Keywords: Connectivity; FMRI; Functional neuroimaging; Human connectome project; Neuroimaging.
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