Tumor microenvironment: new era in exosomal circRNA research - a bibliometric analysis

Aim: The domain of exosomal circRNAs has seen rapid growth over the past few years, yet a thorough synthesis of the scholarly contributions has been lacking. This study employs bibliometric analysis to uncover the focal points and trends in exosomal circRNA research. Methods: We selected articles on exosomal circRNAs from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) and deployed VOSviewer for co-authorship and co-occurrence analysis. CiteSpace was tapped to calculate citation bursts for documents and keywords, generating a time-zone map. Additionally, the bibliometrix R package was employed to identify locally cited references and construct thematic maps and trend topics. Results: The exosomal circRNA research field has produced 767 articles over the past decade. China and Fudan University lead in publication counts, ranking first among countries and institutions, respectively. The journal with the highest number of publications and citations is Molecular Cancer. Zhang Wei and Li Yan are the top contributors and the most co-cited authors, respectively. Analysis of the results suggests that research related to the tumor microenvironment (TAM) may be a recent research hotspot. Among the latest keywords, terms such as microenvironment, macrophage, mesenchymal stem cells, and ceRNA appear frequently. The keyword with the most recent citation burst is ceRNA. The latest trend topic is the macrophage, and mesenchymal stem cell is identified as an emerging theme. Conclusion: This study elucidates the hotspots and trends in exosomal circRNA research through bibliometric analysis. Themes related to the TAM, especially directions involving macrophages, fibroblasts, and mesenchymal stem cells, will likely open a new chapter in exosomal circRNA research.