Global research trends and hotspots in metabolomics of osteosarcoma: a decade-spanning bibliometric and visualized...

Osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor originating from the bones, commonly found in children and adolescents, especially in rapidly growing bone areas such as the knees and upper arms. In this study, we aim to delineate the evolution and convergence of research themes in osteosarcoma metabolomics over the past decade, identify major contributors, and forecast emerging trends that could direct future research efforts.

The bibliometric method has been applied to systematically analyze the literature in the field of osteosarcoma metabolomics. The relevant literatures were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection, spanning from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2023. Tools such as CiteSpace, Bibliometrix, and VOSviewer were used for the visual analysis of the collected literatures. The focused information includes institutions, journals, countries, authors, keywords, and citations.

Various aspects in the field of osteosarcoma metabolism were analyzed. Shanghai Jiao Tong University has published the most papers in the past ten years, followed by Central South University and Zhejiang University. Among the sources, the international journal of molecular sciences publishes the most articles, and oncotarget is the journal with the highest H index. According to Bradford's law, there are 34 core journals identified. A total of 5501 authors participated in the creation of papers in this field. The distribution of authors follows Lotka`s Law, and 85.3% of authors have only one article. 46% of the corresponding authors are from China, but most of these corresponding authors are not good at international cooperation. China also has the largest number of publications, followed by the United States. It can be confirmed that China dominates this field. Among the keywords, "expression" is the keyword that has received the most attention in the past ten years. All keywords can be divided into 9 clusters. Based on the explosive words and hot topics each year, we speculate that future research will focus on the tumor microenvironment, molecular mechanisms and autophagy, targeted therapies and inhibitors.

In summary, this study comprehensively analyzed the current state of research in the field of osteosarcoma metabolism through bibliometric methods. The findings revealed the development trends and research hotspots in this field, which may provide valuable references for future research directions.