Bibliometric trends in ocular trauma literature

Abstract

Introduction
Research concerning injuries to the globe of the eye has increased in number in the 21 century as medical and technological advancements have progressed. We performed a cross-sectional bibliometric analysis of articles published on traumatic ocular injuries since 2000.
Methods
The Web of Science database was queried for all published works excluding abstracts under the topics of “globe rupture,” “ruptured globe,” “globe injury,” “ocular trauma,” or “intraocular foreign body” from January 2000 to November 2022. All articles were compiled and analyzed using the VosViewer software. The criteria analyzed included information about the authors, organizations, journals, and countries. Keywords were also analyzed to determine themes.
Results
2,952 articles were identified in the study with the frequency of published articles on ocular trauma increasing over the last two decades. Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University were the organizations with the greatest number of articles published in this field while the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology had the highest number of articles published in this category. The United States produced the most articles (815) compared to the other countries. “Ocular trauma” was the most used keyword; however, “epidemiology” and “management” were the most used after excluding the search terms used in the original query. 39 of the 2,952 articles (1.32%) had more than 100 citations with five articles (0.17%) eclipsing 300 total citations. The most cited article had 1,106 citations.
Conclusions
The study illustrated an increase in research articles on traumatic ocular injury in the last two decades. The current research interest in traumatic eye injuries may be influenced by improved understanding of both epidemiological trends and management of ocular trauma. Bibliometric analyses may indicate the expertise of institutions and ophthalmologists in the field of ocular trauma.