Endometriosis and Infertility: A Bibliometric Analysis of the 100 Most-Cited Articles from 2000 to 2023

This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research on endometriosis and infertility, focusing on the 100 most-cited (TOP100) articles in the literature.

The design of this study is a bibliometric analysis.

The SCOPUS database was searched using the terms "endometriosis" and "infertility." The productivity and impact of research publications by authors, countries, and journals were assessed using the following indicators: total number of publications, total number of citations (TNC), journal impact factor, and journal citation indicator. The bibliometric analysis was conducted from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2023, using IBM SPSS™ for Windows and VOSviewer 1.6.20. VOSviewer was used to evaluate the TNC, total number of authors/coauthors, and collaboration network between countries of the TOP100 articles. VOSviewer was also used to create keyword co-occurrence networks.

Of the TOP100 articles, 69 were literature review articles, with a mean of 448.97 ± 513.5 citations (range: 191-2,705). The TOP100 articles were published by 479 authors (mean 5.8 ± 7.3 per study) from 40 countries in 39 high-impact journals. The keyword co-occurrence network revealed a grouping of four clusters, with terms related to pathophysiology, clinical management, assisted reproductive technology, and hormonal treatment of endometriosis.

The main limitation of our study is the use of only one database and TNC as the main bibliometric indicator. Studies need at least 2-3 years after publication to accumulate sufficient citations for bibliometric indicators to be reliable. This means that large number of recent studies were not included in this bibliometric analysis.

This study revealed trends in endometriosis and infertility research, especially in the fields of immunology and genetics. It also highlights the importance of global collaboration to improve diagnostics, treatments, and outcomes.