Mapping the Science of palliative care: A bibliometric analysis of the top 100 cited articles

The palliative care evidence base has grown substantially in recent years with the benefits, barriers, and facilitators of care delivery well established across many settings and contexts.

We aimed to rigorously and systematically delineate the trends, themes, and scope of the top 100 papers aided by bibliometrics to map the field of palliative care science and identify future directions for the field.

We conducted a bibliometric analysis in accordance with the BIBLIO checklist for reporting the bibliometric reviews.

Employing a comprehensive search string we examined the Scopus online database from inception to December 14th, 2024, to identify and retrieve pertinent publications. Extracted data included year of publication, number of citations and other metrics, authorship, and study design, among others.

Total citations for the 100 most cited articles ranged from 5083 to 419. Most articles originated from the US (43%), United Kingdom (16%), and Canada (15%). Overall, 83 different first authors and 87 senior authors contributed; about half first authors and 32% of senior authors were women. Forty-two different journals published the articles. Key themes were end-of-life care, palliative care integration within different medical sub-specialties (e.g. oncology, respiratory disease), clinical tool development and validation, and symptom management.

Our findings provide a comprehensive map of the palliative care scientific landscape with key implications for future research, clinical practice, and policy. These results can be used to mitigate scientific disparities in author representation, ensure appropriate evidence use across international contexts, and empower high-quality evidence-based palliative care advocacy.