The Bibliometric Evolution of Neurosurgery Publications From 1977 to 2023

Neurosurgery is a world leader in disseminating neurosurgical science. Although the literature has seen significant increases in academic collaboration, data science, and authorship diversity, the bibliometric evolution of Neurosurgery remains unknown. This study sought to elucidate bibliometric trends in Neurosurgery from 1977 to 2023.

Wolters Kluwer and Web of Science were used to identify all publications in Neurosurgery from 1977 to 2023. Database utilization was analyzed from 2007 to 2023 using abstract keywords. The BERTopic tool analyzed prevailing subspecialty themes. Publication types including clinical/case report/review were analyzed. Statistical analysis included exponential and linear regression.

From 1977 to 2023, 29 755 publications containing 127 171 authors were published in Neurosurgery. From 1977 to 2023, the mean authorship count per publication exponentially increased (2.4 to 8.4, 2.0% annually) (R ² = 0.76), small authorship groups (≤ 5 authors) linearly decreased (90% to 37%) (R = 0.93), multinational authorship groups linearly increased (0% to 21.2%) (R = 0.95), and authorship affiliations per publication exponentially increased (1.3 to 4.6, 3.2% annually) (R ² = 0.65). From 1990 to 2023, female first authorship linearly increased (7.5% to 15.7%) (R = 0.93), Bachelor degree first authorship increased (0.6% to 12.5%), and MD/PhD senior authorship increased (6.2% to 24.7%), with more review articles and less case reports. Cerebrovascular topics dominated from 1980 to 2020, with spine topics most represented in the 2020s. Database utilization demonstrated an exponential, 4.6-fold increase from 2007 (0.38%) to 2023 (2.14%) (R = 0.63).

Neurosurgery publications have demonstrated increasing authorship counts, authorship diversity, collaboration, and database utilization since the journal's 1977 inception, prominently publishing on topics in cerebrovascular and spine research.