Research Focuses and Trends in Multiple Sclerosis: A Scientometric Analysis

The purpose of this study is to analyze the multiple sclerosis research in Science Citation Index-Expanded from 1992 to 2019 in order to determine the top features, trends, and topics. 

In this scientometric study, research population was all articles related to multiple sclerosis in the Web of Science from 1992 to 2019. These articles were retrieved from the Science Citation Index-Expanded and analyzed based on various indicators and characteristics. 

There was a significant increase in the number of articles from 408 in 1992 to 2756 in 2019. A sum of 42,112 articles related to multiple sclerosis has been published in 3,032 journals, which were classified among the 131 Web of Science categories. The top two categories were clinical neurology and neurosciences. Multiple Sclerosis Journal published the most articles. Articles published in the Neurology Journal also had the highest citation per publication. Most of the articles were in English, while 23 other languages were used in the articles. Articles in Japanese and English with 7 and 6.9 authors have a higher average of authors than articles in other languages. English language articles received more citations than articles in other languages. The frequency of used keywords in title, abstract, author keywords, and keywords plus analysis showed that “therapy”, “disability”, “neurodegeneration”, “demyelination” and “MRI” show an increasing trend in the multiple sclerosis articles.

The result of this study can help the policy makers and researchers realize the panorama of multiple sclerosis research and design future research.