Bibliometric analysis of research on thyroid ultrasonography

The incidence of thyroid diseases has increased, which may be partly related to the widespread use of thyroid ultrasound resulting in a large number of asymptomatic thyroid nodules to be found. Research has found that many thyroid ultrasound examinations are completely avoidable. However, the purpose of the present study was to use bibliometrics to analyze the relevant research literature of thyroid ultrasound and understand the overall status of the current research in this field.

We searched the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database in the Web of Science Core Collection. Search terms were "ultrasonography" and "thyroid gland". The date range for the document search was from 1900 to May 10, 2021. Export the full record of the search results and the references in txt. format, and use the CiteSpace software to analyze the annual publication of literatures, the distribution of countries and institutions where the literatures came from, the distribution of journals and authors. The keywords used in the literature were also analyzed.

A total of 1,241 publications were included in the results, and the frequency of citations was 27,149. The top 5 countries for the number of publications published were the USA, Turkey, Italy, South Korea, and China; the top 5 countries by centrality were the USA, Germany, Italy, Canada, and China. The number of institution-published papers was generally low, and the centrality score was low. Research in this field was relatively scattered among institutions and cooperation between institutions was few. There was little collaboration between authors from different institutions. The most cited authors were mainly from European and North American countries. Journals, such as Thyroid, Journal of Clinical Ultrasound, and Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, had great influence in this field. Keyword analysis results showed that research is mainly focused on the differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.

There was an increase in thyroid ultrasound research, but there was few cooperation exist between institutions. The main research direction was the differentiation of benign and malignant thyroid nodules.