Bibliometric Analysis of Moxibustion Research Trends over the Past 20 Years

A bibliometric approach using network analysis was applied to identify the development and research trends for moxibustion. This study also examined the network hub of moxibustion research by investigating the collaborative work of organizations and authors.

Academic articles on moxibustion research published from 2000 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science database. Extracted records were analyzed according to publication year, research area, journal title, country, organization, and authors. The VOSviewer program was utilized to visualize the trends in moxibustion research and to explore the influential organizations and authors.

Analyses of 1146 original and review articles written in English demonstrated that the number of publications related to moxibustion research has increased consistently over the last 20 years. China issued the most articles in this field, and the most represented research area was integrative complementary medicine. A network analysis based on the co-occurrence and publication year of keywords identified the relevant characteristics and trends of moxibustion research. By assessing the total link strength of organizations and authors, influential organizations and authors who have contributed to moxibustion research were identified.

The current study examined research on moxibustion using bibliometric analysis and identified a time-based development of moxibustion research and a global network hub of moxibustion research.