The top-100 cited articles on biomarkers in the depression field: a bibliometric analysis

This paper aimed to explore the characteristics of the top-100 cited articles on the biomarkers in the depression field and strive to find the future trend. The top-100 cited articles were selected from the Web of Science Core Collection database. Excel 2016 and VOSviewer 1.6.9 were used to analyze the information. Forty-six journals contributed to these 100 articles, and Biological Psychiatry published the largest number of articles (n = 18). Holsboer F (n = 4) contributed the most, and Maes M (n = 118) was the most co-cited author. Twenty-six countries and 220 organizations contributed to the top-100 articles, respectively. The USA (n = 48) was the main contributor. NIMH and Kings Coll London both participated in seven articles. Major depression (n = 62), depression (n = 38) and biomarker (n = 31) were the top three keywords. These results indicated that articles published in journals with higher impact factors are more likely to spread. Compared with developing countries, developed countries have contributed more to these articles. It is suggested that cooperation should be strengthened between developed countries and developing counties in the future. More research on biomarkers in the depression field may still mainly focus on major depression.Abbreviation: WoS = Web of Science; JCR = Journal Citation Reports; UK = United Kingdom; NIMH = The National Institute of Mental Health; UCL = University College London; IF = Impact factor; BDNF = brain-derived neurotrophic factor; USA = United States.