Global Research in Iron Deficiency Anemia during 1934–2019: A Bibliometrics and Visualization Study

 This analysis aimed to investigate the global research output in Iron Deficiency Anemia from a bibliometric perspective.

All 29,789 publications in IDA indexed in Scopus from 1934-2019 were included. Using MeSH-assigned keyword search, this research analyzed and visualized the bibliometric data, including annual publication trends and languages and publications, as well as active and influential authors, research institutes, countries, and journals. The scientific visualization was done by co-authorship, co-citation, and word co-occurrence techniques in VOSviewer.

The trend in IDA annual publication growth was increasing. Publications were in over 40 languages, with English as the predominant one. The majority of publications were original research. The highest scientific collaboration was between the USA and UK. Seven out of 13 top authors were from the USA. The top high influential journals were the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine and Blood, respectively. Highly-frequent keywords were in two clusters: epidemiology and IDA management, iron metabolism, and Iron Deficiency Anemia pathophysiology.

The increasing trend of publication growth in IDA demonstrates the importance of research on it and being as an international concern. IDA needs to be investigated from many perspectives, with the main contributions of developing countries where the disease has its causes and consequences. More prolific and highly-cited journals in Iron Deficiency Anemia are of prestigious and known journals that can potentially widen the reach of publications and increase their readability and citation rates. Research on Iron Deficiency Anemia has found its way, and many topics have been considered.