The Development of Necrotizing Enterocolitis Publications: A Holistic Evolution of Global Literature with Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Introduction Despite the fact that necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is one of the reasons for morbidity and mortality in the newborn intensive care units, the literature indicates no bibliometric studies that made a holistic evaluation of the publications on this issue. This study aims to make a holistic evaluation of NEC publications to reveal the latest developments and trend topics. Materials and Methods Bibliometric analyses were performed by retrieving all the publications in Web of Science (WoS: Web of Science Core Collection database maintained by Clarivate Analytics) database between 1980 and 2018 using the necrotizing enterocolitis keyword. The correlations between economic productivity, humanity index, and performances of the countries on the topic of NEC were investigated with Spearman's correlation coefficient. Results A review of the related literature indicated 2,968 publications on NEC between 1980 and 2018. Of these publications, 1,690 (56.9%) were indexed in the article document category in WoS. There was an important increasing trend in the number of publications after 2006. Results of the present study showed that the Journal of Pediatric Surgery and Journal of Pediatrics were the top effective journal that contributed to the literature in terms of publication productivity. The top productive country that produced most publications about NEC was the United States (863, 51.1%). Conclusion Research on NEC is conducted in a limited number of countries. There seem to be more research opportunities in the developed countries because survival rates of premature babies having a disease like NEC are lower in the undeveloped countries, and survival rates are higher in developed countries due to appropriate intensive care conditions. Therefore, undeveloped countries should be supported in terms of NEC and provided with funds.