Ischemic Stroke-A Scientometric Analysis

Stroke is the second leading cause of death world-wide. A comprehensive scientometric study regarding ischemic stroke research has not been performed yet. This study aims at investigating the global research output on ischemic stroke research.

All 21,115 articles regarding ischemic stroke were retrieved from the Web-of-Science-Core-Collection and analyzed regarding regional differences, the authors' sex, subtopics of stroke, as well as international research collaborations.

A total of 132 different countries participated, with the USA contributing most publications with 4,614 (21.9%), followed by China with 3,872 (18.3%), and Germany with 1,120 (5.3%). Analyzing the scientific quality of different countries by H-index, the USA ranked first with an H-index of 202, followed by Germany (H-index 135) and the United Kingdom (UK;H-index 129). The most frequently used topic was "Clinical Neurology" with 9,028 publications. Among all first authors attributed to their sex, 32.3% of all first authors were female and 67.7% were male (4,335 vs. 9,097). The proportion of female last authors was comparatively lower at 22.4% (3,083 publications) compared with 77.6% male authors (10,658 publications). There was a broad network of international collaborations.

Research in ischemic stroke has substantially increased over time. Scientists from the USA have the highest number of publications, followed by China and Germany. Measured by the H-index, the USA held the highest publication quality, followed by Germany and the UK. The scientific landscape was male-dominated with 67.7% of all first authors being male. Worldwide international collaborations play a major role in ischemic stroke research.