A Bibliometric Analysis of GWAS on Rheumatoid Arthritis from 2002 to 2024

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has become a serious threat to human health and quality of life worldwide. Previous studies have demonstrated that genetic factors play a crucial role in the onset and progression of RA. Due to the rapid development of genome-wide association study (GWAS) and large-scale genetic analysis, GWAS research on RA has received widespread attention in recent years. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive visualization and bibliometric analysis of publications to identify hotspots and future trends in GWAS research on RA.

Literature on RA and GWAS published between 2002 and 2024 was extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection database by strategic screening. Collected data were further analyzed by using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Excel. The collaborations networks of countries, authors, institutions, and the co-citation networks of publications were visualized. Finally, research hotspots and fronts were examined.

A total of 713 publications with 45,773 citations were identified. The number of publications and citations has had a significant surge since 2007. The United States contributed the most publications globally. Okada, Yukinori, was the most influential author. The most productive institution in this field was the University of Manchester. The analysis of keywords revealed that "mendelian randomization analysis", "association", "innate", "instruments", "bias", "pathogenesis", and "genome-wide association study" are likely to be the frontiers of research in this field.

This study can be used to predict future research advances in the fields of GWAS on RA and helps to promote academic collaboration among scholars.