Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: A scientometric analysis of publications during 1980-2018

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a subtype of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with a potentially progressive course to liver fibrosis, cirrhosis with its complications, or even hepatocellular carcinoma. NAFLD is a rapidly growing chronic liver disease, with a global prevalence of about 25%, with a significant increase in the last 2 decades, changing the landscape of hepatology. This study aimed to undertake a bibliometric global analysis of research literature focusing on NASH.

We searched the Scopus database to identify all articles pertaining to "non-alcoholic steatohepatitis" or "NASH" - the 2 keywords used to search in the title or abstract within the time period 1980 to 2018. The collected data included document type, author, journal, publication year, citation reports, country, and were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.

A total number of 6632 articles published in 1355 journals were retrieved. English was the predominant language of publication, USA being the most productive with 1937 articles published (29.2% of the total number of publications), followed by Japan with 909, representing 13.7% of publications. Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology and World Journal of Gastroenterology were the most active journals. Research articles were the most common type of publications (4524; 68.22%), followed by review articles (1359; 20.49%). The total number of citations received by all publications was 274,041, with an average of 41.32 per article (range: 0-4384). The average number of authors per article has increased in the last 2 decades, whereas the trend of single- (or few) authored publications has decreased.

This study indicates that NASH is a significant topic in the hepatology research, as proved by the huge number of publications, recording an exponential growth in the last 2 decades. The USA stands out as by far the most productive country.